Transmission Access Reform is crucial to ensuring the market is designed in a way that appropriately signals the right combination of new generation, new storage and firming resources, and new transmission. If we design the market incorrectly, we will get more transmission, generation, and storage than required, and consumers will pay more. We will take longer to achieve our greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments than anticipated, and we will further erode consumer trust and confidence in the market.

To this end, we advocate for three outcomes in our submission:

• We need real reform – the ESB must resist predictable, but persistent calls from some industry stakeholders to weaken the reform further by removing the Priority Access Model.
• Implementation is key – the final policy should be operational and implemented no later than 2027. When choosing between competing priorities, the ESB should choose detailed designs that are simpler to implement.
• Review and revise the reform from the outset – new market approaches should be reviewed from the outset, with opportunities to formally review them as soon as practicable if events demand.

Read the full submission here.