Tenders and Expressions of Interest for NCESS Minimum Demand Service (WA)

The Coordinator of Energy has determined, under clause 3.11A.4 of the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) Rules, to trigger, at the request of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), a Non-Co-optimised Essential System Services (NCESS) procurement process for a Minimum Demand Service to commence on 1 October 2023 with a one-year duration. 

The NCESS Trigger Submission is based on AEMO’s analysis indicating that there is a material risk that expected facility capability in the WEM will be insufficient to manage forecast minimum demand levels. AEMO considers the existing mechanisms under the WEM Rules may not be sufficient to address this risk.

Outcome

AEMO has entered NCESS Contracts with two Service Providers for five projects to provide up to 84 MW of Minimum Demand Service. As required by clause 3.11B.15 of the WEM Rules, AEMO must publish details regarding each NCESS Contract on the WEM Website.

The service provided under each NCESS Contract is to increase Withdrawal or (where the service equipment is not a Registered Facility) decrease Injection as required by AEMO from 1 October 2023 to 1 October 2024 (unless specified otherwise below) during the hours of 9.00 am to 3.00 pm (and generally, 10.00 am to 2.00 pm).

The payment structure for each NCESS Contract is:

• for a Registered Facility and Unregistered Equipment – an availability payment for making the service available (which is not payable unless and until the NCESS provider satisfies the conditions precedent); and
• for Unregistered Equipment – an activation payment.

The required details to be published for each NCESS Contract are indicated in the tables below.

Registered Facilities

Unregistered Equipment

About the Call for NCESS Submissions

AEMO published the Call for NCESS Submissions on the VendorPanel seeking submissions for the expected utilisation of up to 114 MW of Minimum Demand Service with a minimum service provision of 1 MW commencing 1 October 2023 for the duration of one year.

AEMO considered that services would be more likely be procured from unregistered generation or load equipment activated through alternative methods, rather than new Registered Facilities due to the short lead-time associated with the NCESS service requirements. 

The procurement of these services may be from one or more providers, following evaluation of the submissions in accordance with clause 3.11B.9 of the WEM Rules.

AEMO would like to thank stakeholders who responded to the Expressions of Interest with feedback to the draft NCESS Service Specifications which helped us to understand any economic or technical barriers or benefits to providing this service. The finalised NCESS Service Specifications is available below.

Submissions were submitted via the VendorPanel in accordance with the Call for NCESS Submissions Form by 5:00pm AWST on Wednesday 9 August 2023.

Interested stakeholders were encouraged to register with VendorPanel to be informed of whether any supporting documentation such as clarifications to questions may have been published.

Queries can be submitted via email to WA.FutureSystemDesign@aemo.com.au.