Tasmania’s Electricity Reform Framework
The Tasmanian Government’s broad energy policy objective is based on creating an environment for a competitive energy market through the provision of secure, diverse and competitively priced energy. The Government has established a number of specific aims consistent with this high-level objective including:
- Hydro Tasmania retained as a single integrated hydro generation business;
- additional competition created through the conversion of the Bell Bay Power Station to natural gas and its separation from Hydro Tasmania to a new State-owned generation business;
- Hydro Tasmania making financial products available to the market to assist Tasmanian market participants trading across Basslink when the link is importing electricity to Tasmania;
- Hydro Tasmania’s ability to influence Basslink bidding limited by Tasmanian-based regulatory arrangements;
- Hydro Tasmania’s Ministerial Charter amended to ensure that the reliability and security of the State’s hydro system is maintained;
- the market operated in accordance with the National Electricity Rules, with the National Electricity Market Management Company Ltd (NEMMCO) responsible for market operations and power system security;
- the phased introduction of electricity retail competition in Tasmania;
- a vesting contract between Hydro Tasmania and Aurora Energy Pty Ltd to underpin electricity sales for non-contestable tariff customers;
- the Australian Energy Regulator having responsibility for regulating transmission revenue under the National Electricity Rules;
- the Tasmanian Energy Regulator retaining responsibility for distribution network pricing and retail price regulation for non-contestable tariff customers until a national scheme is established and competition is shown to exist in the Tasmanian market; and
- Tasmanian derogations to the National Electricity Rules providing for technical, procedural and administrative issues in the transition to the full NEM arrangements.
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