Energy

The Australian Energy Market is governed by a single set of national institutions which were established by the Council of Australian Government (COAG) in the Australian Energy Market Agreement. The central Australian Energy Market Institutions are as follows:

• The Ministerial Council on Energy (MCE) – set up by COAG in 2001 as the national policy and governance body for the Australian energy market including for electricity and gas. MCE has responsibility for high level policy decisions affecting the Australian Energy Market.
• The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) – is responsible for rule making and market development in respect of electricity and natural gas transmission and distribution networks (from 1 July 2008) and retail markets (from September 2009 other than retail pricing).
• The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) – is the principle regulator of energy in Australia. It is responsible for enforcing the rules for the national electricity market and for economic regulation of electricity and gas transmission and distribution networks and retail markets.
• The National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) – operates the wholesale national electricity market and helps ensure the safety and security of the national electricity system.

From July 2009 NEMMCO is to be replaced with an Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) which will also take over functions of a range of jurisdictional gas market operators, operate the gas bulletin board and become the National Transmission Planner.