Overview
In November 2024, the Australian Government announced a review of the National Electricity Market (NEM) wholesale market settings by an independent expert panel supported by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
The purpose of the review is to recommend wholesale market settings to promote investment in firmed, renewable generation and storage capacity in the NEM following the conclusion of Capacity Investment Scheme tenders in 2027.
The expert panel members are:
Associate Professor Tim Nelson (Chair)
Ms Paula Conboy
Ms Ava Hancock
Mr Phil Hirschhorn
The expert panel will make actionable recommendations and prepare a roadmap, to support the development and staged implementation of reforms to the NEM wholesale market to support the achievement of Australia’s National Electricity Objectives to deliver reliable, competitively priced, safe and secure electricity services, supporting the long-term interests of consumers and prosperity of Australia’s economy.
The Panel recognises the recommendations put forward may have far-reaching and long-term implications for many stakeholders. The Panel also acknowledges the significant policy reforms and processes that have occurred or are underway in relation to energy market settings. The Panel will build upon the work already done, including by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), the Finkel Review, the Energy Security Board (ESB) and governments.
With this in mind, the Panel intends to place a strong emphasis on engaging with stakeholders through an open and collaborative consultation process to develop a series of actionable recommendations. Through the stakeholder engagement process the Panel is seeking the insights of states and territories, market bodies, generators, retailers, investors and electricity consumers (industrial, large and small-scale) across the NEM and beyond.
The Review will consider perspectives from other markets overseas, academic and policy literature, micro-economic and social-policy principles and other industries with similar long-lived, capital-intensive investment features. The Review will also consider previous and current work of governments and the market bodies. The Review is expected to undertake modelling and other analysis to provide a basis for comparison between different policy options and we encourage stakeholders to share their insights and knowledge to inform this process.
We encourage stakeholders to engage collaboratively with us as their contributions will be key to forming the pathway to future market settings that deliver reliable, competitively priced and secure electricity services in the long-term interests of consumers while promoting investment in firmed, renewable generation and storage capacity in the NEM.
You can now provide feedback. You can help us by providing submissions related to issues derived from the Terms of Reference and initial thoughts regarding the attached Terms of Reference Release Package. The Panel is not seeking feedback on the Terms of Reference.
