Archive - Dispatchable demand

The Code amendments for the modified design of dispatchable demand were gazetted on 12 December 2013. A copy of the Gazette Notice and the Code Amendments have been published.

Code amendments 2013

This is for the purpose of preparing an estimate of the cost of implementing it, and will allow us to assess the net public benefit of the alternative design.  Once that assessment is complete, we will decide whether to continue with the original design or to propose the alternative design.  We have published a paper to update the industry on the status of dispatchable demand and describe the alternative design option being investigated.

At its meeting on 6 November 2012, the Board resolved to pause work on the existing (gazetted) design and prepare a consultation paper proposing modifications to the design for dispatchable demand which:

1. would rely on dispatch instructions being issued from one of the schedules used to create forecast prices, such as the Real Time Pricing (RTP) schedule or the Price Responsive Schedule (PRS), rather than the Real Time Dispatch (RTD) schedule that is used to dispatch generation and instantaneous reserves;
2. would allow for participation at any grid exit point (GXP), rather than being limited to non-conforming GXPs as in the existing design;
3. would be cheaper than the revised estimate for the existing design; and
4. could be implemented by the end of April 2014 (cf. the revised date of July 2014 for the existing design).

The modified design would slightly reduce the functionality in that it will not enable the co-optimisation of dispatchable demand bids and interruptible load offers. However, the option to add this at a later date will remain available if experience reveals that doing so would deliver long-term benefits to consumers.

Full industry consultation will take place in the usual manner as part of any proposal to amend the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010. This consultation is planned for February/March 2013.

This work has shown that June 2013 implementation will not be possible and that the cost will be higher that used in the initial cost benefit assessment. Consequently, the Authority and the system operator have been working together to reassess the design for potentially more effective ways to deliver the intent of the dispatchable demand regime.

The system operator proposed a number of alternative options which the Authority and the system operator have jointly explored.

The Code amendments for a dispatchable demand regime were gazetted on 20 October 2011. A copy of the Gazette Notice and Code Amendments are available on the Code Amendments 2011 page.

We have published a brief overview paper of both the Dispatchable Demand and DSBF initiatives.