Invitation to Comment: Draft Ancillary Services Procurement Plan 2025

Closing date for cross-submissions 5pm Thursday 15 May 2025

The consultation period closed 5pm Thursday 8 May 2025. We now invite cross-submissions.  

The System Operator is required to review the Ancillary Services Procurement Plan (Procurement Plan) at least every two years and consult on the recommended changes. 

The Procurement Plan covers the five ancillary services including frequency keeping, instantaneous reserve, over frequency reserve, black start, and voltage support.

It primarily: 

  • specifies the principles the System Operator must apply in assessing what and how much ancillary services to procure;
  • contains a methodology for making that assessment;
  • outlines the process for procurement of ancillary services; and
  • outlines the technical requirements and key contracting terms the System Operator will apply in entering into contracts for ancillary services. 

We are proposing a range of amendments across all services, which are described in the accompanying consultation document and proposed draft Procurement Plan.   

Our consultation period opened on Thursday 17 April 2025 with submissions due by 5pm on Thursday 8 May 2025. This is followed by a one week period for cross submissions which will be due by 5pm on Thursday 15 May 2025.  

Consultation Documents

The current version of the Procurement Plan, approved on 3 May 2022, is available here. 

Questions and System Operator Responses

Various questions from Simply Energy
Simply Energy Questions for the SO 30.04.2025.pdf (PDF 103.65 KB)
5 MW threshold

Question

Can you clarify whether the 5 MW threshold relates to the nameplate capacity of the inverter or the approved capacity of the resource? (Relates to B46.3)

System Operator Response 

The 5 MW threshold relates to the full capacity of the BESS; being both the charging and discharging capacity of the BESS.

Definitions

Question

Several definitions are bolded in the procurement plan but do not have definitions provided e.g. "grid". 

System Operator Response 

These are defined terms in the Code and the procurement plan is an incorporated document of the Code. Please refer to Part 1 of the Code for a list of the definitions. 

Industrial loads that may be on an AUFLS feeder from the EDB.

Question

Relating to AUFLS considerations, what is the expectation for industrial loads that may be on an AUFLS feeder from the EDB? Will Ancillary Services Agents be excluded from offering this as interruptible load, prioritising the EDB's use of the load as part of AUFLS? (Relates to B59 and B60)

System Operator Response 

The intent of this update reflects that it is already an obligation under the current Ancillary Service contract (see paragraph 3.2 of the Instantaneous Reserve schedule). We have included this in the procurement plan to provide consistency between the two documents. The expectation here is that any contracted loads will not be included in any assignment of AUFLS provision as EDBs will need to ensure they meet their Code obligations regarding AUFLS. There is a Code obligation for ancillary service agents to notify EDBs of any load(s) on their networks (this has not changed) (clause 8.54B) and connected parties have Code obligations to provide AUFLS. The System Operator is procuring a separate reserves product and AS agents must manage their own contractual obligations. Additionally, the reserve requirement is only to manage the largest risk on the system at any point in time so reserve provision should not be so large that there are significant issues for the EDBs to manage their AUFLS obligations. 

Load being used in ancillary services and other programmes eg. demand response

Question

Is the System Operator intending to stop any load from value-stacking both Ancillary Services and other programs such as demand response and non-transmission solutions? Will hot water be prevented from being bid as interruptible load? (Relates to B59.2)

System Operator Response 

The intent of this update reflects that it is already an obligation under the current Ancillary Service contract within the schedule for Instantaneous Reserves. Ancillary service agents will need manage their different contracts and obligations and must meet their bid and offer accuracy obligations as set out in the Code. Hot water will not be excluded from being offered as reserves.

600 seconds of data for BESS

Question

Can you please provide rationale as to why you require 600s of data for BESS, when IL is 75s? (Relates to B51.2)

System Operator Response 

The requirement for generation reserve (which includes BESS) to provide 5 minutes (not 600s) of pre event data is to avoid timestamp issues which are often present in generator data and to capture plant ramp times. The data requirement for BESS may actually be longer if providing SIR. 

Submissions

We received 6 submissions listed below.

Contact EnergyView
GenesisView
MercuryView
MeridianView
NewPowerView
Simply EnergyView

Submit your Feedback 

We are now inviting cross-submissions.    

Please send your submission to [email protected] by 5:00pm on Thursday 15 May 2025. 

System Operator