UPDATE FROM ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER KAREN OLESNICKY Welcome to the first Energy Update of 2017. I hope you have all hit the ground running after a wellearned Christmas break, and are already tackling the challenges of another exciting year in the energy industry. This will be my final Energy Update as acting CEO, as on 20 March 2017 we will welcome Audrey Zibelman as AEMO’s new CEO, who joins us to continue her extremely distinguished career. Audrey comes to AEMO with extensive international experience in the public, private and not-for-profit energy sectors. Most recently she held the position of Chair of the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC), where she oversaw the regulation and safety of New York’s electricity, gas, telephone, cable, water and steam utilities. It has been a privilege to serve as acting CEO of this great organisation, despite it being the result of the sad and sudden passing of our dear colleague and friend, Matt Zema. It has been an honour to have had the opportunity to carry on his legacy for the energy industry and I would like to thank everyone who has supported this role, especially my colleagues at AEMO.
This support was especially appreciated during the recent challenges we faced, not only last year with the South Australian Black System event occurring on 28 September, but also this year, when we were challenged to maintain the security of a power system in transition during a recent heatwave in early February. The hot temperatures that hit eastern and south eastern Australia in February, resulted in supply issues to both South Australia (where 100 MW of load shedding was directed by AEMO) and New South Wales (where load shedding to a large industrial customer was required to maintain supply to domestic customers) has brought considerable focus to the structure and operation of the National Energy Market. During the same week as these power system events, AEMO appeared at the Senate Select Committee into the Resilience of Electricity Infrastructure in a Warming World to discuss our roles and responsibilities in maintaining power system security under the existing National Electricity Law. The heatwave event highlighted our position on this topic, and the need to evolve the National Electricity Market (NEM) design to meet current and future requirements. AEMO has openly called for greater unity to address the growing challenges of today’s power system. Our stakeholders remain fundamentally critical to this evolution.
Looking ahead, our focus shifts to gas in March with the delivery of the Victorian Gas Planning Report (VGPR) and the Gas Statement of Opportunities (GSOO). The VGPR (the first full bi-yearly report since changes to the National Gas Rules) informs market participants and government of transmission capacity changes in the gas market that impact security and reliability in the Victorian Declared Transmission System. The GSOO provides information over a 20-year outlook period on the adequacy of eastern and south-eastern Australian gas markets to supply maximum demand and annual consumption. This is one of our major reports and the 2017 report will again provide some extremely important planning indicators with a strong focus on the interdependencies between the electricity and gas sectors. Thank you once again for all your support and I look forward to yet another exciting year in Australia’s energy industry. All the best,
Karen Olesnicky
We look forward to being a part of, and driving discussions around the challenges of maintaining power system security, on topics such as the evolving generation mix and demand profile changes, government policies, contestable metering and extreme weather events.
CONTENTS P2
Update from Acting Chief Executive Officer Karen Olesnicky
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The heat is on for a united approach to power system security
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AEMO welcomes new CEO, Audrey Zibelman
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Future power system security program continues to deliver
AEMO welcomes nine engineering and economic graduates to help shape Australia’s energy future
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AEMO’s Dr Jenny Riesz tours Ireland’s transmission grid operator, EirGrid
The people behind AEMO… Introducing Neetika Kapani, Team Leader, System Capacity (WA)
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In brief
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Energy Update February 2017