The Tasmanian Economic Regulator is required by legislation to conduct periodic reviews into the reliability of electricity network services in Tasmania.
2023 Network Reliability Review
The Regulator released its 2023 Network Reliability Report on 13 April 2023.
The Report provides a high-level review of the performance of the Tasmanian electricity transmission and distribution systems, in terms of reliability and power quality, over the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022.
The Report:
- reviews the performance of network services on mainland Tasmania and the Bass Strait Islands against prescribed reliability and power quality standards and targets;
- discusses current issues relating to reliability and power quality; and
- discusses issues that may affect the reliability of network services over the next five years.
On the 11th of October 2022 the Regulator published the Terms of reference for the 2023 Network Reliability Review.
2020 Network Reliability Review
The Regulator released its Report on network reliability in Tasmania on 13 February 2020.
2020 Report into the Reliability of Electricity Network Services in Tasmania (1Mb)
The objective of the Report is to present the findings of the Regulator's review of the performance of the Tasmanian electricity network in terms of reliability and to identify and analyse issues that may impact on reliability, in the short and medium term.
The report addresses a number of issues, including:
- the reliability and power quality performance of the transmission and distribution networks on mainland Tasmania;
- the reliability of the distribution network on the Bass Strait Islands and quality of supply on the islands;
- the management of power quality in respect to voltage, fault levels and frequency (inertia) in the mainland Tasmania power system in response to increased amounts of non-synchronous generation (for example, large-scale wind farms); and
- the growth of wind generation in the State and the increasing amounts of distributed energy resources (for example, solar PV).
In August 2019, the Regulator released the final Terms of Reference for the 2020 network reliability review.
On 1 July 2019, the Regulator released draft Terms of Reference for its network reliability review and called for submissions. A submission was received from:
TasNetworks Submission on draft Terms of Reference for network reliability review (375Kb)
2016 Network Reliability Review
The 2016 Network Reliability Review commenced in late 2015 but its completion was deferred as a result of the Basslink outage which occurred in December 2015.
The Regulator released its Final Report in relation to its review on 27 October 2016. A media release also accompanied the report.
The Final Report provides a high-level review of the performance of the electricity supply industry in terms of the reliability of the integrated Tasmanian power system. It identifies and analyses the issues that are likely to influence the future reliability of the power system in the medium term.
The Final Report addresses a number of issues, including:
- the performance and robustness of the Tasmanian electricity network including Basslink;
- issues around the management of potential further large scale renewable generation in the State; and
- risks and opportunities for the network arising from emerging technologies such as embedded solar generation, battery storage and electric vehicles.
A Draft Report was released on 7 September 2016 for public consultation. No written submissions were received.
In November 2015, the Regulator released Terms of Reference for the 2016 Network Reliability Review and called for submissions.
Submissions were received from:
Local Government Association of Tasmania - 2015 Reliability ToR (255Kb)
Basslink - 2015 Reliability Review ToR (37Kb)
Past Network Reliability Reviews
Performance Reporting - Energy in Tasmania (EiT) - Prior to 2015
Prior to 2015, the Regulator's Reliability Review Report was incorporated into the EiT Report, which is available here.