Unlocking CER Benefits Through Flexible Trading rule change - final determination

We discussed the Unlocking CER Benefits Through Flexible Trading Rule Change draft determination in our March article. 

In this article, we highlight some of the key changes that may be of interest to our stakeholders, while noting that it is not intended to provide a comprehensive summary of the rule change. For more information, we recommend reviewing the AEMC’s final determination. 

The main elements of the AEMC’s final determination include: 

• Establishing an enduring framework for flexible trading with multiple energy service providers at large customers’ premises
• Creating opportunities to optimise CER flexibility for small customers (households and small businesses)
• Introducing new meter types to enable measurement of energy flows using in-built technology. 

The rule change introduces a series of changes designed to integrate consumer energy resources (CER) into the energy system and offer a platform for innovative CER products and services. The changes include the introduction of:

• ‘Secondary settlement points’ for both large customers and small customers – additional metering installations installed by a Financially Responsible Market Participant (FRMP) behind a point of connection to the National Electricity Market (NEM)¹. 
• New meter types designed to allow for non-traditional connection types and technologies². Type 8 metering is for use at secondary settlement points, with a type 8A metering installation designed for use at large customer secondary settlement points and a type 8B metering installation for small customers. Type 9 metering has been created to allow for street furniture connections such as smart streetlighting systems, kerbside electric vehicle charging points, and some existing unmetered connections where traditional metering cannot be practically accommodated. 

Changes from the draft determination 

The final determination sees some changes to the draft National Electricity Rules and National Energy Retail Rules . These changes can be read in full in Appendix E2 of the final determination. 

While the characteristics of Type 8 meters remain the same, these meters will be distinguished as 8A meters for large customer secondary settlement points and 8B meters for small customers’ premises. These descriptions will provide clarity within procedures and guidelines. 

A new role, called the NMI Service Provider, will be introduced with the suite of rule changes. NMI Service Providers will be responsible for establishing and maintaining National Metering Identifiers (NMI) for secondary settlement points. In the draft rule, this role fell to Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs), however ultimately the AEMC decided to create a new service provider category, for this purpose. 

The final determination also clarifies some consumer protections, including regarding de-energisation. In response to feedback from the Energy & Water Ombudsmen, the rule change includes provisions that permit de-energisation to a secondary settlement point only in situations where de-energisation is permitted to the entire premises – that is, retailers may not de-energise only a secondary settlement point. 

If you have any questions about the final determination for the Unlocking CER Benefits Through Flexible Trading rule change and how it might apply to your project, please contact us or submit an enquiry to our Innovation Enquiry Service. 

Other upcoming changes 

The new rules implemented under this rule change will assist in enabling reforms across the regulatory framework proposed under the National CER Roadmap. The National CER Roadmap outlines priority reforms to harness the full potential of CER. The roadmap was released in July 2024 and was developed by the CER Working Group.

The Roadmap refers to the Unlocking CER Benefits Through Flexible Trading rule change alongside a series of other changes to create a foundation for greater CER integration and future innovations. 

A directions paper has been published for the Accelerating smart meter deployment rule change, which seeks further feedback on the draft determination released by the AEMC in April. The draft rule proposes the introduction of reforms designed to reduce barriers to the installation of smart meters while maintaining consumer protections. Submissions to this directions paper are due 12 September 2024. 

The AEMC recently initiated the Electricity pricing for a consumer-driven future review, which will examine market arrangements for consumers in a network increasingly reliant on consumer resources, as well as the roles of various market participants in the evolving energy industry. 

In July, the AEMC released the draft determination for the Integrating price-responsive resources into the NEM rule change. The focus of this rule change is to provide a framework to incorporate unscheduled and price-responsive CER (such as virtual power plants and community batteries) into the National Electricity Market , in order to better harness newer forms of electricity generation. The final determination is expected to be released in December 2024. 

In addition to these upcoming rule changes, a recently submitted rule change request seeks to enable consumers to access their power data in real time. The request, which was submitted by Energy Consumers Australia, has not yet been initiated by the AEMC.