NEMMCO 2006 Regional Minimum Reserve Levels

NEMMCO determines minimum reserve levels which are consistent with the Reliability Standard. Minimum reserve levels were last reviewed by NEMMCO in 2004, and since that time Basslink has been commissioned, Kogan Creek is well advanced and generator forced outage data has been refined and clarified. As a result of these changes, NEMMCO began modeling to review the current minimum reserve levels.

The results of the latest modeling revealed that changes to the existing minimum reserve levels are justified.

As a consequence, the following minimum reserve levels were approved by the NEMMCO Board and noted by the Reliability Panel in September 2006.

NEM Wide Minimum Reserve Levels [MW Above M10 Regional Demand Forecast]
Year	QLD*	NSW	VIC & SA	SA*	TAS
2006-07	480	-1490	615	-50	144
2007-08	560	-1430	615	-50	144
* This is a local requirement and must be met by generation within the region.

These new minimum reserve levels will become operational in NEMMCO's MT PASA process on Tuesday 24 October 2006.

The following documents provide more information relating to the recalculation of minimum reserve levels. They include:

a summary document prepared by NEMMCO outlining the process adopted and the resulting minimum reserve levels.
a report prepared by ROAM Consulting ("Minimum Reserve Level Recalculation 2006") describing in detail the studies completed to substantiate the resulting minimum reserve levels.
a report prepared by ROAM Consulting ("Minimum Reserve Level Recalculation Assumptions Report") describing the input data and assumptions used in their studies.

Any queries contact David Bones on (07) 3347 3041 or Charlie Macaulay on (03) 9648 8763.