The Department for Energy and Mining is inviting submissions from the public on the proposed amendments to the Emergency Management Act 2004 to manage all types of electricity supply emergencies.

Currently, the powers to manage an electricity supply emergency are straddled across two legislative instruments.

The Essential Services Act 1981 provides for the management of an interruption or dislocation of essential services, which includes electricity. However, the administrative process in declaring an emergency and issuing directions to relevant parties under this Act is complex and is not an ideal solution to implement when responding to a rapidly evolving electricity supply emergency.

The Emergency Management Act 2004 provides specifically for the management of electricity supply emergencies. However, the powers of direction only extend to the Australian Energy Market Operator, electricity generators and electricity retailers. This limits the Minister’s ability to manage an electricity supply emergency.

The result is that it is possible that an emergency would need to be declared under both legislative instruments to effectively manage an electricity supply emergency. This is inefficient and represents a risk to the effective management of an electricity supply emergency.

It is proposed that the Emergency Management Act 2004 become the primary legislative instrument for an electricity supply emergency. This would require an expanded list of market participants which could be directed by the Minister. The draft Emergency Management Bill 2020 proposes amendments to the Emergency Management Act 2004 to achieve this outcome.

The explanatory memorandum (PDF, 229.1 KB) and the draft Emergency Management Bill 2020 (PDF, 46.2 KB) have been released to the public for consultation. A virtual question and answer session on the proposal was held on 16 November 2020.

This consultation is now closed.