AEMC Submission on NEM Access Standards 2026

On 7 May 2026, Canus Technologies lodged a submission with the Australian Energy Market Commission on rule change ERC0394, "Improving the NEM Access Standards – Package 2."

The rule change could introduce a new technical access standards for large inverter-based loads, including data centres, connecting to the National Electricity Market. The threshold for large inverter-based loads at distribution would rise from 5 MW to 30 MW. Disturbance ride-through and recovery obligations align with international precedents in Texas, Ireland, and Finland.

Canus Technologies supports the AEMC's direction. The submission proposes three complementary principles for the final rule and the AEMO interim guidelines that will follow:

Technology neutrality. The framework should specify what must be evidenced, not how. No single vendor, instrument, or mechanism should be locked in.

Recognition of an independent measurement-based evidence pathway. Where operational claims materially affect system security or market confidence, independent measurement-based evidence should be a recognised pathway, alongside operator-attested telemetry.

Boundary-aware design and data minimisation. Visibility and compliance evidence should verify electrical behaviour at clearly identified electrical boundaries, without requiring disclosure of commercially sensitive workload, customer, model, or operational data.

The AEMC's draft determination is the most substantive update to NEM technical connections standards in some time, and a necessary one given the present operating environment. We look forward to continued engagement as the final determination publishes and AEMO interim guidelines develop, expected mid-to-late 2026.

The full submission is on the public AEMC project record for ERC0394.