This amendment to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code) comes into force on 29 June 2017.

The amendment makes changes to Parts 1 and 13 of the Code to reduce the gate closure period to one hour for situations in which a two-hour gate closure period currently applies.

The amendment also makes changes to Part 13 to:

(a) clarify the drafting and readability of a number of clauses relating to the submission and revision of bids, offers and reserve offers:

(b) remove references to the cancellation of bids, offers, and reserve offers as these duplicate the references to revisions:

(c) clarify the process for participants to permanently cease providing bids, offers, or reserve offers at a particular location (for example, if generating plant is being decommissioned):

(d) clarify that the total megawatts (MW) specified in each offer must not exceed the total MW that a generator expects to be capable of generating at the relevant point of connection to the grid for the relevant trading period:

(e) provide that a generator must not revise certain offer parameters during a gate closure period (for example, ramp rates):

(f) reduce and simplify the minimum MW change that requires a generator to immediately submit a revised offer:

(g) require intermittent generators, when submitting persistence-based offers, to take account of information about any expected changes in the availability and capability of the relevant intermittent generating station:

(h) during the 2 hours immediately preceding the trading period to which an offer relates, require intermittent generators to submit a persistence-based offer at least once per trading period:

(i) require generators to ensure that any revision to an offer during a gate closure period revises the MW specified in the offer only to the extent necessary to ensure that the MW specified reflects the MW that the generator expects to be capable of generating, and that the reduction is deducted from the MW offered in the highest price bands first:

(j) remove the obligation for the grid owner to provide a report to the Authority on any revised grid information submitted during a gate closure period:

(k) remove the obligation on the Authority to consider reports made to it in relation to certain types of revised bids, offers, and reserve offers to assess whether the revisions were compliant with the relevant provisions in the Code.