We appreciate the opportunity to comment to comment on the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) 2022 Draft Integrated System Plan (ISP).

We applaud AEMO for the hard work and genuine spirit of consultation through which they have identified a development path that aims to optimise consumer benefits. At Energy Consumers Australia, we believe that if we – as a community – appropriately navigate the energy transition, it will take us from a ‘top-down’ centralized electricity system to one that is also more decentralised, more community-based, and more responsive to the needs and voices of consumers (as both users and producers). Given that belief, we have several concerns with the direction of the Draft ISP, which we detail in this submission.

Our comments focus primarily on what we hope are helpful suggestions to improve the balance of attention placed on the consumer side of the energy system. We would like to emphasise our closing comments about the many things that the ISP does well, and we re-iterate our willingness to work with AEMO to contemplate, identify and suggest potential mitigations for “demand side” risks more thoroughly to achieve an integrated and whole of system plan

Read our full submission here.

You can read our previous submission to AEMO on the ISP here.