The Building and Energy Agency has announced regulatory changes aimed at improving governance arrangements for the State’s energy sector.
The updated framework recognises the need for strategic leadership and coordination, and ensures the sector can efficiently respond to energy transformation challenges.
Minister for Energy, Bill Johnston said the updated governance framework would take effect on 1 July.
“Key changes include transferring responsibility for administration of the Wholesale Electricity Market Rules and Gas Services Information Rules from the Rule Change Panel to the Coordinator of Energy,” Mr Johnston said.
“Responsibility for market development functions, including policy and technical reviews, will be transferred from the Economic Regulation Authority to the Coordinator of Energy.”
Other changes included allocating development of Whole-of-System Plans to the Coordinator of Energy; allocating responsibility for the new rules for the North West Interconnected System to the Coordinator of Energy, and the creation of a new energy market evolution function for the Coordinator of Energy.
“The Coordinator of Energy, supported by Energy Policy WA, will assist the Minister for Energy in planning and coordinating the delivery of energy across WA,” Mr Johnston said.
“The energy transformation we started in 2019 requires responsive governance to ensure it delivers reliable, sustainable and affordable energy supply for all customers into the future.”
He said stakeholders had raised concerns about the potential gap in governance beyond the Energy Transformation Taskforce, which was now being addressed.
“The changes tackle the deficiencies in the current governance arrangements. They are not a reflection on the performance of any of the existing governance bodies,” the Minister said.
