Managing peak electricity demand

First steps in improving outage coordination

Upcoming Open Closed Decision
View submissions Submissions closed 8 November 2024
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Decision

We have decided to amend the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Technical Code D of Schedule 8.3) to:

  • include unplanned outages and asset capacity reductions
  • provide minimum requirements for outage disclosures
  • require disclosure in the format specified by the system operator
  • make some minor updates to clarify the obligations.

The new outage rules will be effective on 1 January 2025.

We will monitor the impact during the first quarter of 2025 and assess whether any other changes are necessary.

We would like to thank all those who engaged with this consultation. Following feedback, we made changes to our proposal so that asset owners and the system operator could accommodate the necessary upgrades to their tools and processes by January.

Consultation

This consultation sought feedback on proposed amendments to the Electricity Industry Participation Code to improve outage coordination. We want to remove ambiguity and better reflect current practice, minimising the risk of disruption to consumers’ electricity supply.

Our proposed Code amendments aim to strengthen outage coordination obligations by:

  • requiring asset owners to disclose all outages of their assets
  • clarifying that asset owners are required to disclose and update their outages as soon as possible
  • clarifying that existing outage coordination obligations apply for capacity reductions and unplanned outages, in addition to planned outages (where appropriate)
  • requiring that outages are disclosed in a manner and form reasonably specified by the system operator.

During winter 2024, generators rescheduled maintenance outages in response to the low hydro storage situation. It is possible that some of these outages will be rescheduled to early 2025 to enable generation to be available through the following autumn and winter.

These are first steps to improve outage coordination which we aim to implement quickly, in time for January 2025.

Consultation paper

Consultation paper - First steps in improving outage coordination

Consultation paper - First steps in improving outage coordination

Submissions

Download all submissions (.zip)