Energy Consumers Australia appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) National Electricity Amendment (Technical Standards for Distributed Energy Resources) Rule 2020 and National Energy Retail Amendment (Technical Standards for Distributed Energy Resources) Rule 2020 Consultation Paper.

We appreciate that high uptake of rooftop solar PV systems is presenting challenges to the energy market operation and specifically system security. We support the need for immediate, short-term actions which can address these concerns, in particular autonomous response to disturbances (voltage ride-through).

However, more broadly we are not persuaded that this current rule change proposal is the best approach to establishing the technical standards required for empowering consumers to manage and control their appliances and generation and home energy storage assets that from a system view are described as distributed energy resources (DER).

There is vast potential for what the Energy Security Board describes as DER services to transform the way that households and small businesses use their appliances, generation and energy storage assets. With the right conditions, consumers can partner with industry to deliver the services needed to both mitigate the risk of future system security issues as well as benefit consumers through lower bills.

To read our full submission click here.

To read our submission to the ESB Governance of DER Technical Standards Consultation Paper, click here and to read our Submission to the AEMO Initial Distributed Energy Resource Minimum Technical Standards Issues Paper click here.