Who can make this decision?
A dispatch question, a rule change and a network revenue decision need different evidence and different decision makers. Work through four desk scenarios, then write a responsibility brief for a battery project.
One industry. Different decisions.
Find the process that matches the question. These are parallel responsibilities, not a sequence of project approvals.
Operate systems and markets
Dispatch, market operation and system planning—not the national rule-change decision maker.
Official roleMake national energy rules
Rule-change decisions and market-development advice—not real-time dispatch.
Official roleRegulate and enforce
Economic regulation and compliance within its jurisdiction—not every energy decision in Australia.
Official roleLocation matters. In the WEM, check the ERA's role and WA instruments. Government policy, planning and safety questions may need other decision makers.
Reconstruct a dispatch interval
Your team is investigating why a NEM unit received a lower dispatch target. Which institution's operational records are the starting point?
The lesson
6 chaptersBrowse the chapters
01Start with the decision, not the acronym
A question from your manager
‘Who approves this?’ sounds straightforward until ‘this’ turns out to include a market rule, a network investment and an operational instruction. Your first job is to split the request into decisions. A useful responsibility map gives each decision a process and an evidence trail—not just an organisation's name.
| Question | Starting point | Do not confuse it with |
|---|---|---|
| How did a NEM interval operate? | AEMO operational records | A finding that someone broke a rule |
| Should a national market rule change? | AEMC rule-change process | A dispatch instruction today |
| What regulated revenue is allowed for a NSW network? | AER determination | A customer's complete retail bill |
| What policy direction are governments pursuing? | Relevant government and ECMC publications | An enacted obligation with a commencement date |
Check your understanding
A project presentation says ‘AEMO approval means all regulatory approvals are complete’. What should you ask?
Show reasoning
Which specific decision or requirement was satisfied, for which asset, under which instrument?
An organisation's involvement is not blanket approval. Request the actual decision, conditions and remaining workstreams rather than accepting an umbrella phrase.
02Build an incident evidence pack without guessing blame
Original desk exercise
A generator's target falls from 80 MW to 45 MW. At the same time, a price increases. A draft briefing blames the operator. You have a screenshot, but no unit identifier, no timestamp convention and no constraint record. The observation may be real; the explanation is not yet established.
Separate three questions
- 01
What happened?
Recover the original interval records and align clocks, units and revisions.
- 02
Why did it happen?
Test availability, offers, constraints and other plausible mechanisms.
- 03
Was an obligation breached?
Use the applicable obligation and the organisation's compliance review process; do not infer a breach from a price move.
| Item | Record | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Observation | Unit, interval and revised value | Makes the result reproducible |
| Mechanism | Candidate constraint or availability change | Provides a testable explanation |
| Uncertainty | What is missing or contradictory | Prevents an unsupported conclusion |
| Action owner | Internal operational or compliance lead | Separates analysis from authority to act |
Check your understanding
Does an expensive interval prove non-compliance?
Show reasoning
No. It is a result to investigate, not proof of misconduct.
Reconstruct the mechanism, identify the relevant obligation and distinguish evidence from suspicion. The same price outcome can arise from different physical and commercial conditions.
03Read a reform by status and effective date
The planning mistake
An investment memo assumes a proposed change is already binding. The spreadsheet may calculate perfectly while using the wrong obligation. A policy announcement, consultation paper and final instrument can describe similar intentions but have different status.
| Field | What to capture |
|---|---|
| Proposal and source | Exact document title and publisher |
| Jurisdiction and instrument | The legal or procedural framework affected |
| Status | Announcement, consultation, final decision or in-force requirement |
| Timing | Decision date, commencement and any transition provisions |
| Business impact | Which process, asset or contract assumption changes |
| Review trigger | The publication or date that requires reassessment |
Original timing exercise
Read the three dates
Assume a proposal is published on 1 March, a final decision on 1 July and commencement on 1 December. These dates are invented for practice.
Write the September position
Describe a final decision with future commencement. Check transition provisions rather than saying the change is already operating.
Test the investment case
Separate obligations applying now from assumptions after commencement. Show sensitivity if implementation timing remains uncertain.
Result: A dated implementation assumption, not an undifferentiated ‘new rule’ label.
Check your understanding
A consultation closes tomorrow. Is that automatically the date the proposed requirement begins?
Show reasoning
No. A submission deadline and a commencement date answer different questions.
Find the governing document and its status. Record the decision and implementation dates separately; do not invent the latter from a consultation timetable.
04Translate a revenue decision into the right financial question
A deliberately simplified network case
Assume a fictional network allowance of A$120 million and 2,000 GWh of annual throughput. Dividing one by the other gives a useful scale check. It does not recover the actual tariff structure or the bill for a particular factory.
Illustrative average only
A$120,000,000 ÷ 2,000,000 MWh = A$60/MWh
Synthetic annual values at a consistent boundary. This is not a regulated tariff formula or a forecast customer charge.
| Quantity | What you would still need |
|---|---|
| Total allowed network revenue | The relevant determination and regulatory period |
| Customer network charges | Applicable tariff, demand profile, fixed and capacity components |
| Whole retail bill | Retail contract, energy consumption and all applicable components |
Check your understanding
With unchanged A$120 million revenue and 1,800 GWh throughput, what happens to the illustrative average?
Show reasoning
It rises to about A$66.67/MWh; this is still not a customer's tariff.
Convert 1,800 GWh to 1.8 million MWh before dividing. The denominator falls, so the average rises. Keep the arithmetic result separate from the actual pricing method.
05Check the jurisdiction before reusing a precedent
Same operator, different framework
A colleague copies a NEM compliance note into a WA WEM project. The familiar AEMO name does not make the regulatory responsibilities identical. The ERA's WEM material identifies its monitoring and enforcement functions and the Electricity System and Market Rules.
| Check | Question for the analyst |
|---|---|
| Location and system | Which state, network and market does the asset actually belong to? |
| Participant role | Generator, retailer, network or customer—and in what registered or contractual capacity? |
| Decision needed | Operation, compliance, rule change, licensing, connection or commercial approval? |
| Applicable source | Which current instrument governs that decision here? |
| Assumption reused | What changes when the precedent comes from another jurisdiction? |
Check your understanding
What is wrong with ‘AEMO operates both markets, therefore the AEMC and AER perform identical roles in both’?
Show reasoning
The conclusion does not follow from the shared operator.
Identify the WA instruments and decision makers independently. Organisation names are not a substitute for checking jurisdiction and statutory remit.
06Write a one-page responsibility brief
Your assignment
A fictional NSW battery developer asks three things: why yesterday's dispatch differed from its forecast, whether a proposed rule changes next year's revenues, and whether a network revenue decision approves its connection. Prepare one page that separates the issues before recommending any external contact.
| Section | What a reviewer should see |
|---|---|
| Decision | A separate, answerable question for each issue |
| Evidence | Document or dataset, date, jurisdiction and status |
| Responsibility | Relevant external process plus an internal owner |
| Recommendation | Next action and why it resolves the uncertainty |
| Boundary | What you have not established and what must not be inferred |
An example opening
Dispatch
Reconstruct the interval using operational evidence. Do not claim a rule breach from the forecast error alone.
Reform
Locate the rule-change record and effective date; distinguish current obligations from a future revenue assumption.
Connection
A revenue determination does not establish that this project's connection requirements are complete. Obtain the asset-specific process and documents.
Result: Three workstreams with separate evidence and owners, rather than one unsupported request for ‘approval’.
Check your understanding
How should this assignment be assessed?
Show reasoning
Check scope, sources, role allocation and the limits of each conclusion—not just whether the acronyms are correct.
Ask a reviewer to identify one claim they cannot reproduce. Revise the brief so they can locate the evidence and understand the next action. This is a practice assignment, not an independently marked qualification.
Watch the explanation
Key terms in plain English
- MWh
- Megawatt-hour: a quantity of energy. A steady 1 MW for one hour delivers 1 MWh.
- AEMO
- Australian Energy Market Operator: operates electricity and gas systems and markets under their applicable arrangements. It is not the same organisation as the AER or AEMC.
- Dispatch
- The operational process of determining output and consumption targets, subject to offers, demand and system constraints. A target is not a meter reading.