Pilbara ISOCo Ltd

Pilbara ISOCo Limited (Pilbara ISOCo) sought authorisation in respect of certain coordination and system operation activities under the ‘Pilbara Regime’, a legislative regime formed under Part 8A of the Electricity Industry Act 2004 (WA).

Pilbara ISOCo is the Independent System Operator for the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), an electricity grid serving mining, industrial, commercial and residential loads in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Pilbara ISOCo sought authorisation for itself, and current and future Registered Network Service Providers, Registered Controllers and Connection Applicants (which are classes of persons defined in the Pilbara Networks Rules).

Pilbara ISOCo sought authorisation for the parties to engage in conduct:

1. performing a function under the Pilbara regime (or, where the Participant is a Connection Applicant, participating in the Pilbara regime's connection process); and
2. with the purpose of maintaining or improving the NWIS' safety, security or reliability; and
3. comprising either
   1. exchanging information regarding, or planning or implementing, certain requirements relating to system security (System security measures)
   2. exchanging information regarding, or planning or implementing, outages in electrical facilities and networks in respect of outages in electrical facilities and networks to enable new connections, or repairs, maintenance, renewals and upgrades (Outage coordination), or
   3. exchanging information regarding, or planning or implementing, the technical requirements to be complied with by a facility or network which is, or is proposed to be, connected to the NWIS (Technical connection standards).

Authorisation was sought for a period of 5 years.

On 3 September 2024, the ACCC issued a draft determination proposing to grant authorisation with conditions in respect of the proposed arrangements. The ACCC proposed to grant authorisation for a period of 3 years. 

On 25 September 2024, the ACCC decided, and the applicants agreed, to extend the statutory timeframe for the ACCC to make a final decision until 20 December 2024.

On 24 October 2024, the ACCC decided to grant interim authorisation starting from 4 November 2024.

On 18 December 2024, the ACCC decided to grant authorisation with conditions until 31 January 2028.

A copy of the ACCC’s final determination is available below.