• 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. 

    AEMO may provide further explanatory information on this webpage after the initial publication of the EOI.  AEMO will endeavour to notify interested parties if further information is published on this webpage however, interested parties should monitor this webpage to check for further information. 

    Request for Expression of Interest for the RERT Panel for Short Notice and Medium Notice RERT for Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania.

    AEMO is seeking expressions of interest for RERT Panel members in 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 closes on 4.00 pm, 10 December 2018. 

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

    Interested parties should respond using the documents below. Please use the Information Spreadsheet to provide information as indicated in the ITT (please use the correct tab in the spreadsheet applicable to the type of reserve).

    RERT Panel EOI

    RERT FAQ

    The following FAQs were prepared from questions asked from interested proponents. If we receive more questions a further round of FAQs will be posted at a similar time next week.

    For reference, we provide FAQs from the 2017 RERT campaign.

    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:

    AEMO recently completed a consultation on AEMO’s Procedure for the Exercise of Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader as a result of the AEMC rule change reintroducing long notice RERT.  This consultation is now closed. 

    Long Notice RERT & 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. 

    RERT Contracted for 19 January 2018

    RERT Contracted for 7 & 8 June 2018

     

    1 In particular, clause 3.20 of the NER.