The rule maker for the Australian electricity market has
made a new draft rule. The idea is to facilitate competition in the
energy services market, specifically for battery storage and other
distributed energy resources which are "behind the
meter", or on the customer's side of the electricity
network. In short the rule restricts network service providers'
ability to earn regulated returns on behind the meter
assets.
What this means is that network service providers will have to
buy distributed energy resources from third parties, rather than
earn the return from these services themselves. The change reduces
the risk of network service providers using their monopoly position
to favour benefits for the network, at the expense of maximising
value across the energy system. This is achieved by putting the
choice of how these assets are utilised in the hands of consumers
(who are, believes the AEMC, best placed to decide when and how to
use the energy they generate).
