APIA has supported a proposed review of competition in Eastern Australia’s wholesale gas market in its submission to the Federal Government’s Energy Green Paper.
“Competition in gas supply is essential to produce a rapid, effective supply response,” the APIA submission says.
“A review of competition in Eastern Australia’s wholesale gas markets, as suggested in the Green Paper, will identify priorities and appropriate responses to maximise the ability of gas supply to respond to the changing market conditions covered in the Green Paper.”
Transparency and liquidity have been an ongoing aim of gas market reform. These market characteristics are best supported through initiatives that focus on competition, efficiency gains and refinements, and growing the gas market.
“Policy that focuses solely on efficiency improvements will not deliver the best outcomes to expand and improve gas markets,” the submission says.
“Recent transparency reforms have concentrated on transmission capacity availability and utilisation. As a result, industry-led capacity trading initiatives have been introduced, and there are also government processes under way to further support capacity trading with the aim of developing low cost solutions to improve transparency and liquidity in the gas transmission sector.”
“The next tranche of transparency improvements in the gas market need to focus on addressing information asymmetries in the capacity of supply to meet export and domestic demand. This will allow market participants to better judge price and supply risks when securing gas supply.”
Read the submission online.
