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| Work Stream: | Energy Market Reform
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| Council Priority Issue:
| 4. Addressing impediments to, and promoting the commercial adoption of, demand-side response in Australian markets.
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| Project:
| Demand Side Participation (DSP)
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| Timeline:
| Ongoing
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| Key Documents:
| - SCER Demand Side Participation Work Plan (
Word /
PDF)
- SCER Demand Side Participation Work Plan – Status of projects (Word / PDF)
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| Overview:
| SCER’s agenda for DSP builds on the work of the former Ministerial Council on Energy (MCE).
Elements of this work include the consideration of DSP in the National Framework for the Economic Regulation of Distribution, the National Connections Framework, and the National Framework for Distribution Network Planning and Expansion. Background on this work and key documents are available from the MCE web site. SCER’s DSP agenda seeks to ensure that electricity consumers have:
- incentives to manage their demand;
- information about options to manage demand and about the cost of their consumption and the value of not consuming; and
- access to the technology and skills to manage their demand.
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| |
| Background:
| For an individual consumer, the value of managing demand includes the avoided cost of consuming electricity when prices are high.
The individual or cumulative effects of these decisions also result in benefits to the power system, including reductions in the growth of peak demand, thus deferring the need to augment the supply system, and/or supporting system security and reliability during periods of high demand.
DSP has two main sources of economic value within the electricity market:
- The value of lower generation costs – consumer responses that avoid times of high system demand may reduce generation operational costs, lower wholesale peak prices, avoid the need to build new generation, or provide improvements in reliability; and
- The value of avoided network infrastructure costs – consumer responses which dependably reduce demand in an area of network constraint can reduce the infrastructure augmentation required for reliable supply, avoiding the costs of new infrastructure.
Consumers have a range of options through which to implement DSP, including peak shifting, electricity conservation, fuel switching, distributed generation and energy efficiency.
A range of technologies and skills support DSP, including advanced metering, distributed generation, and energy use assessment, procurement and management.
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| Terms of Reference:
| N/A
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| Process and Timelines:
| At the first meeting of the new Standing Council on Energy and Resources in
December 2011, Ministers noted the importance of DSP and the need for consumers to be able to make informed decisions about the quantity and timing of their electricity use.
Ministers requested officials to develop a detailed SCER DSP work plan. The initial work plan was agreed by Ministers at their meeting in June 2012, and is available from the Key Documents link above. Officials have also developed a report to track progress of the components of the
work plan. These documents will change over time as work streams are added to the plan and others are completed.The Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) Demand Side Participation Review is considering all market and regulatory arrangements that impact on the electricity supply chain, with the objective of ensuring that the community’s demand for energy services is met by the lowest cost combination of demand and supply side options. The Stage 3
Power of Choice Review is currently under way, and details are available from the AEMC web site. |
| Supporting Documentation:
| N/A
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| Consultation and Submissions:
| N/A
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| Previous Consultation and Submissions:
| N/A
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| Contact:
| scer@ret.gov.au