Registration exemption and classification guide gets a review

Want to operate a production unit in the NEM and gain an exemption from needing to register?

An AEMO guide that you’ll have been studying closely might be getting some improvements.

AEMO has commenced a consultation on proposed changes to AEMO’s Guide to Registration Exemptions and Production Unit Classifications (the Guide) on September 15, 2026.

It is framed as a targeted consultation, acknowledging what is not is scope and what is.

The proposed changes focus on the thresholds, criteria, conditions and application process for two exemption categories in the Guide:

• • Exemptions from the requirement to register as a generator or IRP for a System based on the characteristics of the System.
  • Exemptions to allow pre-commissioning tests before the owner, operator or controller becomes registered in relation to a System, currently called ‘notifiable exemptions’.

That said, there are many questions asked , considerations raised, in the consultation paper that arise from those two aspects. The draft guideline also includes minor drafting changes to content on classification.

There is an information session on Tuesday 6 October.

Written feedback on the consultation is due by Tuesday 13 October 2026.

If all goes to plan, the effective date for the revised Guide will be 1 May 2027.