Integrating Price Responsive Resources into the NEM (IPRR)

Background

Consumer Energy Resources including those orchestrated via Virtual Power Plants are a growing resource in Australia’s energy system. AEMO’s 2024 Integrated System Plan (ISP) anticipates that ‘coordinated CER storage’ could provide around half the National Electricity Market’s (NEM) dispatchable capacity by 2050, subject to these resources being integrated into market scheduling processes. However, these resources are not currently visible, predictable nor dispatchable in the NEM which presents challenges and inefficiencies in how the market operates. They are also limited in being able to provide valuable services, such as regulation frequency control ancillary services.

To address this, in January 2023, AEMO submitted the rule change request for the ‘Scheduled Lite Mechanism’ to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) for its consideration. The rule change request proposed a voluntary mechanism to allow unscheduled price-responsive resources, such as exempt generation and virtual power plants (VPPs), to participate in the NEM.

The AEMC has progressed this rule change request and on 25 July 2024 published a draft determination and draft rule titled Integrating price-responsive resources into the NEM. The draft rule proposes an IPRR commencement date of 05 November 2026.

High-Level Implementation Assessment (HLIA)  

AEMO has produced a High-Level Implementation Assessment as the first stage of AEMO’s IPRR reform implementation process under the NEM Reform Program. It provides an indicative and preliminary view to participants on how the IPRR draft rule may be implemented by AEMO. This HLIA also provides a general assessment of what these changes may mean for NEM participants.

The deadline for stakeholder feedback on the draft HLIA closed in August 2024. AEMO thanks stakeholder for their valuable contributions to this early planning phase. AEMO will publish the final HLIA that will be adjusted for the IPRR final determination and rule in the weeks following the IPRR final rule’s publication, indicatively in February 2025.

Further information

For more information, please contact NEMReform@aemo.com.au.