Weather-related grid resilience rule issued in Australia
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The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has made a draft rule to bolster grid resilience and reduce the risk of power outages caused by extreme weather events.
The draft grid resilience rule, says AEMC in a release, explicitly recognises distribution network resilience in the national electricity rules, to support Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) in efficiently reducing these risks.
The changes would give DNSPs greater regulatory clarity to guide their planning and investments in network resilience, and assist customers who are impacted by power outages caused by severe weather events.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) would be responsible for developing, publishing and maintaining formal Network Resilience Guidelines.
DNSPs would also need to comply with proposed new planning and reporting requirements to ensure that resilience expenditure is efficient, transparent and delivers outcomes for consumers.
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Commenting in a release was AEMC Chair Anna Collyer, who said the draft rule was developed in the long-term interests of customers: “More extreme weather is an unfortunate reality that leaves electricity networks and the communities they power more vulnerable.”
“This framework would support DNSPs in efficiently planning and investing in network resilience, while providing clearer guidelines to support consumers impacted by power outages caused by extreme weather.”
The draft rule is part of a larger programme of work coming from the AEMC designed to reduce the impacts of climate change on the energy grid.
This includes the Victorian Government’s two expert panel reviews into network and community resilience in response to separate severe weather events, that left hundreds of thousands of people without power, in some cases for several weeks.
The AER also recently established a Value of Network Resilience, which would be complimented by the draft rule.
According to the AEMC in a release, hundreds of thousands of Australians have experienced long-duration power outages from severe storms, bushfires and floods in recent years.
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of these events, adding further strain on the electricity distribution network, and compounding the risks to households and businesses.
The draft rule also follows deadly storms across eastern Australia a month ago, causing widespread power outages.
According to the Guardian, the thunderstorms unleashed heavy rain, strong winds, flash flooding and giant hailstones. Lightning strikes were also triggered, leading to outages that affected more than 200,000 homes.
