City of Onkaparinga & Ors

On 4 March 2025, the City of Onkaparinga, City of Holdfast Bay, City of West Torrens, City of Salisbury, Town of Gawler and City of Port Adelaide Enfield (together, the Applicants) lodged application for authorisation AA1000691.

The Applicants seek authorisation to:

1. jointly enter into a competitive open tender process for long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) from renewable electricity generators or providers, which will provide an option to purchase large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) and future Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificates for emission reduction purposes;
2. conduct joint negotiations of the associated terms and conditions, including pricing;
3. select at least one supplier to supply an amount of the combined electricity consumption of each of the Applicants, and Accredited Renewable Electricity;
4. make and give effect to a contract, arrangement or understanding in relation to setting the price for the supply of electricity to each Applicant, for the proposed PPAs;
5. make and give effect to separate PPAs, incorporating the jointly negotiated terms, between each Applicant and the selected tenderer/s; and
6. have centralised ongoing administration and management of the resultant PPAs.

Authorisation is sought for 12 years.

The Applicants also requested interim authorisation to enable them to engage in the above conduct while the substantive application for authorisation is being assessed by the ACCC.

On 10 April 2025, the ACCC issued a draft determination proposing to grant authorisation for 12 years.

On 10 April 2025, the ACCC also granted interim authorisation to enable the Applicants to engage in part of the proposed conduct while the ACCC completes its assessment of the substantive application. Interim authorisation does not extend to giving effect to any agreements with electricity suppliers.

The ACCC invites the views of interested parties on this draft determination. Submissions are requested by 30 April 2025. If you wish to make a submission in relation to this matter, please lodge it via this web form.

An indicative timeline for the ACCC’s assessment is set out below.