Australian Energy Market Commission responds to request for advice on system to protect community from potential financial collapse of energy company

Client(s) Australian Energy Markets Commission

Jones Day assisted the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) in responding to a request for advice from the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) Energy Council in relation to financial market resilience in the National Electricity Market (NEM). The AEMC identified that the failure of a large participant in the NEM with a significant retail customer base could have significant flow-on effects to other participants. This could threaten the financial stability of the NEM, result in disruptions to consumers and affect public confidence.

The AEMC's Final Report to the COAG Energy Council recommended that a number of new measures be implemented to improve NEM's ability to manage and respond to the failure of a large market participant in addition to changes to improve the effectiveness of existing Retailer of Last Resort arrangements. In addition to advising on the draft recommendations, Jones Day also provided advice on amendments necessary to the current legislative framework to achieve the recommendations set out in the AEMC's Final Report.