In 2011, the ERA reviewed the first five years of the Wholesale Electricity Market in operation. We noted that the volume of trading in the Short Term Energy Market was at its highest level since the market commenced, and average short term prices were at their lowest levels. The price for capacity fluctuated over time, but had recently been reduced by one third.
There was also greater competition in the market, particularly in the generation sector but there were concerns about the possible re-merger of Verve Energy and Synergy, climate change policy, demand side management with Western Power, the effectiveness of the outage planning process, the rule change process, and the market for bilateral contracts and their influences on market outcomes.
Our discussion paper was published in October 2011 and we received eight submissions from the public. Our report was delivered to the Minister for Energy and published on our website in May 2012.
