Options for enabling transmission alternatives
About this Consultation
The Government Policy Statement on Electricity Governance (the GPS) requires the Commission to “consider whether there would be net benefits in providing for a mechanism whereby investments in transmission alternatives receive payments reflecting some or all of the value of avoided transmission investment” (paragraph 90).
A transmission alternative is generation, load, or a network arrangement that reduces demand for transmission, and so allows grid investment to be deferred or avoided.
In order to specifically advance the policy requirement in the GPS, the Commission has published a paper to assist in establishing the Commission's high-level policy direction regarding enabling transmission alternatives. It analyses the options for facilitating transmission alternative investment.
The paper takes a broader approach than signalled in the GPS, as it considers not just mechanisms for paying for transmission alternatives but decentralised options that may facilitate efficient decision-making between grid expansion and transmission alternative investment. These options are evaluated against a counterfactual where transmission alternatives are not enabled.
The Commission invites submissions on this paper by 5pm on 22 July 2005. Submissions received after this date may not be able to be considered, but the Commission does intend to allow for a period of cross-submission.
This page is related to: Transmission.