The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) is seeking feedback on how to set the level of reliability provided by the NSW electricity distribution network businesses.
Tribunal Member at IPART, Sandra Gamble said the Electricity Distribution Reliability Standards review would consider whether customers were receiving the reliability and security they valued from distribution networks.
“The distribution networks provide the local poles and wires that transport electricity to household and business customers in urban, regional and remote areas of NSW,” Ms Gamble said.
“Since 2007-08, the networks have generally provided better levels of reliability than are required by their standards, in terms of the frequency and length of unplanned outages.” she said.
“However, as extreme weather events become more frequent, it is important to strike a balance between the costs that the businesses incur in providing more resilient, reliable networks and the value that customers place on experiencing fewer and shorter outages.”
Ms Gamble said that as new technologies were providing customers with the ability to generate, store and supply electricity to the network, distribution networks needed to adapt to ensure that they provided reliable and secure two-way flows.
She said submissions on the issues paper Review of distribution reliability standards would be received until 24 April and considered by IPART before a draft report was released in September.
The 55-page paper can be accessed at this PS News link.
