Regulation

As the rulemaker for Australia’s electricity market indicates it will not get rid of marginal loss factors, what effect is this likely to have on investment? And is the regulator’s position likely to change before its final ruling in January 2020?

‘Emerging areas like data management’ could be classified as critical infrastructure, Australian federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said during a speech on the rise of China.

Undertakings by ANZ Terminals to divest a facility in South Australia and to exclude a facility at Port Kembla from the deal alleviates competition concerns, the competition watchdog said.

The proposed regulations are not final but even without revisions, they are likely to significantly impact foreign investment in the country’s infrastructure, Kirkland’s Mario Mancuso, Shawn Cooley & Luci Hague explain.

With state energy ministers meeting on 22 November – just a day after the Australian Energy Market Commission decides whether to amend rules on Marginal Loss Factors – the market is hoping for much-needed clarity around investment decisions.

The Australian government’s decision to block two Chinese bids for Ausgrid drew a line in the sand for the land Down Under. 

The European renewables subsidy flip-flops earlier in the decade foreshadowed a market transition that is now playing out in full. 

The regulator also said underspending was a factor in the high performance of electricity transmission and gas distribution companies.

Top executives including Howard Marks and James Zelter expressed concern at last week's PDI Forum about political change and the risk of private equity being ‘squashed’.

The country's competition watchdog has come out strongly against a decision to remove it as the Port of Newcastle’s regulator, sounding caution about monopoly assets having ‘unfettered market power’.