• Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT)

  • In this section

  • The Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) is a function conferred on AEMO to maintain power system reliability and system security using reserve contracts.

    On 13 July 2017, AEMO issued an Invitation to Tender to seek responses from potential providers for the following Long Notice RERT contracts (“First Round ITT”).

    Request for Long Notice RERT – Second Round (Closed)

    Please note that Requests for Long Notice RERT have now closed.

    In accordance with our previous statements on the reserve shortfall forecast, AEMO has revised the forecast reserve requirements for the 2017/18 summer period and has identified additional forecast reserve requirements for the period January to March 2018.

    In accordance with the National Electricity Rules and the RERT Guidelines, AEMO is now issuing a second round Invitation to Tender for Long Notice RERT (Second Round ITT) seeking offers for the provision of long notice reserve for January 2018 to March 2018 in Victoria and South Australia (combined requirement), under the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader provisions. Please note:

    • AEMO is seeking responses from the Second Round ITT that are in addition to reserve tenders received under the First Round ITT.
    • AEMO will continue to review the summer reserve shortfall forecast and may request further reserve if necessary. For Long Notice RERT, AEMO must enter into contracts prior to 31 October 2017. Consequently, the Second Round ITT announced here is likely to be the final opportunity for providers to tender for provision of Long Notice RERT reserve.
    • Respondents to the First Round ITT must honour the offers made in the First Round ITT for the validity period specified. If respondents to the First Round ITT withdraw their offer and make an offer under the Second Round ITT, AEMO reserves all rights, including, without limitation, rejecting the proposal made under the Second Round ITT.
    • AEMO continues to consult with the Victorian and South Australian Jurisdictions regarding the quantity and costs associated with the forecast RERT reserve requirement.

    An email has been sent out at with this update providing information on the use of VendorPanel, an online tendering tool. That email will contain a link to the Vendor Panel website which contains videos and guides that will help you set up your account and invite colleagues. If you wish to put in a response to the Second Round ITT we invite you to register on VendorPanel – AEMO’s online tool for managing our purchasing activities. Please click on the following link to register as a supplier for AEMO:

    Visit VendorPanel Registration

    More detail is available in the invitation to tender and expression of interest documents:

    Long Notice RERT ITT - Second Round Tender (Closed)

    Request for Expression of Interest for the RERT Panel for Short Notice and Medium Notice RERT

    AEMO issued an initial Expression of Interest for RERT Panel seeking expressions of interest from entities in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory who may be able to provide reserve energy on short and medium notice as part of a RERT panel. This Expression of Interest closed on 7 July 2017.

    AEMO subsequently issued a further Expression of Interest for RERT Panel seeking expressions of interest from entities in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory who may be able to provide reserve energy on short and medium notice as part of a RERT panel closing 30 September 2017.

    AEMO now wishes to give entities further opportunity to express interest becoming members of the RERT Panel and is issuing a further Expression of Interest for RERT Panel until 17 November 2017.

    Please note that the terms of the EOI and the RERT Panel Agreement have been altered since the previous expressions of interest were published and are available below.

    Short Notice and Medium Notice RERT Panel EOI

    Other Relevant Documents

    Long Notice RERT ITT – First Round Tender (Closed)

    Addendum

    What is RERT?

    The Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader is a function conferred on AEMO to maintain power system reliability and system security using reserve contracts.
    AEMO’s powers and obligations relating to RERT are set out in three areas:

    RERT Panel

    AEMO may procure long notice reserve through invitations to tender where it has 10 weeks or more notice of projected shortfall.

    Alternatively, AEMO may maintain a panel of RERT providers that can provide short notice (between three hours and seven days) and medium notice (between ten weeks and seven days) reserve if required and for whom technical details are pre-agreed.  Panel members  for short notice RERT agree on prices when appointed to the panel, whereas panel members for medium notice RERT do not, and prices are negotiated if and when reserve is required.

    The RERT panel allows AEMO to run an expedited tender process in short and medium notice situations, as the  tendering process is pre-agreed and makes use of pre-determined agreements and standard tender forms.

    What reserve is acceptable for RERT

    Typical examples of reserve that can be procured for RERT include:

    • Customer load that can be curtailed and restored on demand, this can be large industrial load or a group of aggregated smaller loads
    • Generation capacity that is not available to the market that can be brought online

    To be eligible, reserves provided under a reserve contract must not be available to the market through any other arrangements.

    In addition there are a number of criteria that AEMO will use to assess the reserve, these include:

    • What is the availability of the reserve over the summer period
    • Whether the reserve can be activated as a block of not less than 10MW
    • Whether the reserve can be activated continuously for at least 30 minutes

    Further detail on the reserve requirement is available in the expression of interest documents. AEMO is able to negotiate on many aspects of the RERT requirements and interested parties are encouraged to contact AEMO if they have any questions.

    What triggers RERT

    AEMO continuously assesses whether forecast reliability and security is outside a relevant NEM standard. If it observes this and it considers there is no market resolution to it, then AEMO may choose to procure reserve.

    The trigger for the activation of reserve depends upon the lead time required to activate the reserve and the nature of the reserve shortfall.

    Terms

    RERT contracts can have provisions to pay providers for availability, pre-activation (for non-scheduled reserves only), usage, and early termination. There are no payments made for being on the RERT panel.

    1 In particular, clause 3.20 of the NER.