According to the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association National Policy Manager, Steve Davies, two current inquiries into the operation of the gas market must avoid covering old ground and present new solutions in their recommendations.
Speaking at the Queensland Power and Gas Forum 2015, Mr Davies said it was often observed that gas market reform moved slowly, but this was not a major problem.
“The market is working, and everyone who needs gas today is getting it,” Mr Davies said.
“The problem is that reform keeps revisiting the same issues. In the case of capacity trading, the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) Energy Council conducted a three-year process to determine the way forward. The outcomes of that process haven’t even been implemented yet and we have both the Australian Energy Markets Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reviewing capacity trading again.”
Mr Davies also told the forum it was likely that the problem of access to secondary capacity was not as severe as reported.
“Given that some market participants are able to put flexible arrangements in place, it is likely the extent of the issue is being overstated,” he said.
“Both reviews have a lot of work to do and revisiting issues that are being dealt with is not the best use of this opportunity.”
