The energy market operator should spin off its subsidiary that handles tenders but keep its ownership over the Integrated System Plan, an independent review says.
The review into the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) governance arrangements suggested tweaks to the way the organisation is run, but rejected calls for more radical changes that had been put forward in some submissions.
It did however accept that the largely unchanged governance system from 2009 did “reflect a different era”, but tweakments could achieve the same result as a full facelift with less disruption.
The biggest change recommended by the review, led by senior governance expert Nigel Ray, was to spin off AusEnergy Services Limited (ASL), which was set up to handle New South Wales’ (NSW) energy auctions but now handles tenders for several government schemes.
Ray found “near universal” support for splitting the two apart, given ASL’s investment-driven mandate is to get infrastructure built, fast, versus AEMO’s need to balance reliability, security and affordability for the grid and consumers.
