Energy Coordination Regulations 2004

The Regulations embed a set of definitional and scope decisions about information relevant to energy regulation. The core concept is a prescribed catalogue of information that may be requested under s. 21 of the Act. That catalogue is organised into seven classes in Schedule 1, each addressing a different locus of the energy value chain or system state.

• Scope of activity-based data: Items 1 and 2 cover retrospective and prospective activity data: previous consumption/production/processing/storage/transportation/sale/supply/delivery/receipt (item 1), and forecasts of the same (item 2). The concept is activity flows across the whole energy lifecycle.

• Contractual and market arrangements: Item 3 addresses wholesale and retail arrangements, enumerating sub-elements such as the parties to arrangements (3(a)), principles and processes and changes (3(b)), actual and contracted quantities (3(c)), content of contracts (3(e)), and operating costs and assets used (3(f)). Item 3(d) limits price and price-calculation requests to specified regulated entities and exemptions.

• Disruption and contingency information: Item 4 specifies data about interruptions and disruptions, their causes and sequence (4(a)), communications about them (4(b)), trading arrangements and allocation/pricing during disruption and recovery (4(c)), and financial impact (4(d)). The concept includes a duty to furnish operational chronology and economic consequences.

• Infrastructure detail: Item 5 requires information on energy infrastructure performance, contracts related to performance, age/size/capacity, operational arrangements (including redundancy and reliability measures), acquisition/planning/construction/operation/maintenance costs, asset management arrangements, and reliability history and projections.

• Resource/reserve metrics: Item 6 covers the quality of a resource or reserve under the person’s control and anticipated recoverable energy.

• Emissions: Item 7 specifically captures greenhouse gas emissions from premises owned or occupied by the person or occupier.

Two cross-cutting definitional choices are present in regulation 13(2) and in the conditional limitation in item 3(d). Regulation 13(2) broadens “energy infrastructure” to include apparatus, facilities, structures, plant and equipment associated with its operation. Item 3(d) narrows access to pricing and underlying price-calculation information to certain licence-holders or exempt persons: (i) a licensee under the Act, (ii) a licensee under the Electricity Industry Act 2004, (iii) a licensee under the Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969, (iv) a body established by the Electricity Corporations Act 2005 s. 4(1) or its subsidiary, (v) a person exempt under s. 11H(1) of the Act from s. 11G(2) of the Act, and (vi) a person exempt under Electricity Industry Act 2004 s. 8(1) from s. 7(4) of that Act and who sells electricity to at least one small customer using not more than 160 MWh pa.

The Regulations do not define the procedural mechanics of a request under s. 21, do not set a timeframe for production, do not prescribe forms, and do not state confidentiality protections. Their principal conceptual move is to convert a general statutory information power into a specific list of categories that an authorised requester may demand.

The operative language of regulation 13(1) is broad: “a person or an occupier of premises may be requested to provide any or all of the kinds of information described in Schedule 1.” That wording identifies the primary obligation-bearers as individuals or entities who are persons (in the ordinary statutory sense) and occupiers of premises, without limiting by size, sector or ownership in the text provided.

Certain items in Schedule 1, however, attach particular relevance to defined classes of regulated participants. Item 3(d) conditions the requestability of pricing and upstream pricing-calculation material on the subject being one of the following: a licensee under the Energy Coordination Act 1994, a licensee under the Electricity Industry Act 2004, a licensee under the Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969, a body established under Electricity Corporations Act 2005 s. 4(1) or a subsidiary of such a body, a person exempt under s. 11H(1) of the Act from s. 11G(2), or a person exempt under Electricity Industry Act 2004 s. 8(1) from s. 7(4) who sells electricity to at least one small customer consuming not more than 160 MWh pa. In practice, that sub-item allocates a higher degree of intrusiveness for pricing to regulated parties and certain exempt suppliers, and excludes the pricing stab of the Schedule for other parties on its face.

The Schedule’s other items are potentially applicable to any person or occupier who has relevant information: for example, information about previous or forecast consumption, production, storage and transportation (items 1-2) are not qualified by licence status. Information about disruptions, infrastructure performance and greenhouse gas emissions (items 4, 5 and 7) likewise apply to any person or occupier with control or occupancy of premises or infrastructure. Item 6 (resource or reserve under the control of the person) targets those in possession or control of a recoverable energy resource or reserve.

Consequently the Regulations affect a wide range of private parties and public entities that participate in energy markets or own/occupy energy-related premises: producers, processors, transporters, storage operators, retailers, wholesales, pipeline operators, plant operators, site occupiers and potentially large industrial energy users. The text also places specific onus on entities within the list of licence-holders and certain exempt suppliers to produce more sensitive pricing data.

Who decides to request the information is not set out in the Regulations; that procedural and authorising detail is in s. 21 of the Act, which the Regulations serve. The Regulations therefore affect both data subjects (persons/occupiers) and the requesters authorised under the Act. The compilation table shows the insertion of the current Schedule 1 in 2010 and an amendment set in 2011, which signals that the range and precision of affected parties has been considered in subsequent administrative updates.

Duties

• Duty to provide prescribed information when requested: Under r. 13(1), for the purposes of s. 21 of the Act, a person or occupier may be requested to provide any or all kinds of information in Schedule 1. The duty to supply follows from the combination of s. 21 (the statutory power to require information) and the Regulations’ specification of the information types. The Regulations themselves do not state the process, timing, or mandatory character of the response; they make the listed categories available for request under the Act.

• Duty to supply detailed operational, contractual and financial information where applicable: Schedule 1 specifies detailed sub-categories , for example, content of contracts (item 3(e)), operating costs and assets (3(f)), costs of acquisition/planning/construction/operation/maintenance of infrastructure (5(e)), asset management arrangements (5(f)), and financial impact of disruptions (4(d)). Where an information request is lawfully made under s. 21, the person or occupier will face requests for these specific data types.

• Duty to provide sensitive pricing information in limited cases: Item 3(d) operates as a conditional duty: pricing and the calculations or processes underlying price movements are requestable only in relation to persons who fall within the enumerated licence/exempt categories. If you are one of those entities, the Regulations permit the requester to demand pricing information under the Act.

Rights and limits (as expressed or absent in the instrument)

• Rights to privacy or confidentiality are not created or detailed in these Regulations: The provided text does not prescribe confidentiality protections, limits on use or disclosure, redaction regimes, or claims processes for commercial-in-confidence information. Any protection for confidentiality will therefore depend on the Act (s. 21) or other legislation or policies not included here.

• No procedural rights or timelines are set in the Regulations: The Regulations do not prescribe notice periods, formats for production, or time to comply. Those procedural or appeal rights, if any, will be those in the Act or in administrative processes outside this text.

• Right to challenge scope or applicability: The Regulations identify the types of information that may be requested; they do not themselves provide mechanisms for refusing a request or for judicial review. That means persons who consider a request outside Schedule 1 or beyond the authority in s. 21 will need to look to the Act or judicial review avenues external to these Regulations.

Who decides

• The Regulations do not name who may request the information; they operate “for the purposes of s. 21” and so the identity and authority of requesters is decided under that statutory provision. The Regulations therefore set the content of permissible requests; the Act determines who may request and under what authority.

Behavioural implications

• Entities holding energy data should expect potential demands across a wide range of operational, contractual and financial records. Entities in the enumerated licence or exempt categories should expect that price and price-calculation data specifically may be requested. Occupiers and owners of premises should be aware that greenhouse gas emission data (item 7) and disruption histories (item 4) are within scope.

Caveat

• Because the Regulations are an enabling, prescriptive schedule, the actual duties and rights in practice require reading them together with s. 21 of the Act and any relevant confidentiality, privilege or exemption regimes in other applicable statutes. The Regulations themselves do not define sanctions, procedural steps, or confidentiality protections.

The Regulations as provided do not specify penalties, sanctions or enforcement bodies. They are a prescription of the kinds of information that may be requested under s. 21 of the Energy Coordination Act 1994; the enforcement mechanism and penalties for non-compliance, if any, are therefore located in the primary statute, s. 21, or other provisions of the Act not reproduced in this text. The Regulations make no attempt to create new enforcement power, timetable for compliance, or penalty schedule.

Operational enforcement consequences that flow from the Regulations are therefore indirect and contingent:

• Enforcement lever resides in the Act: Any compulsion to produce the Schedule 1 information must be grounded in s. 21 of the Act. The Regulations do not replace or alter the Act’s enforcement regime. To determine what penalties attach to failing to comply with an information request, whether there are powers to enter premises, or whether criminal or civil sanctions apply, one must consult the Act itself.

• Administrative discretion and operational risk for requesters: Because the Regulations specify the types of information allowed to be requested without setting procedural constraints, authorised requesters under the Act may issue demands covering the items in Schedule 1. The extent to which any administrative body will enforce compliance, or escalate to penalties, will depend on the Act and on administrative policy not present in the Regulations.

• No statutory immunity or confidentiality rule in the Regulations: The absence of express confidentiality or privilege protections for items identified in Schedule 1 means that enforcement actions, if they require disclosure to third parties or public reporting, will be governed by the Act and by other laws. The Regulations do not themselves limit or authorise public disclosure.

• Practical enforcement pathways: In practice, an authorised enforcement pathway could include a formal notice under s. 21, and then any statutory remedies the Act provides for non-compliance. The Regulations’ role in enforcement is therefore to expand or clarify the subject matter that lawful notices may cover; they do not provide or constrain penalties.

• Record of amendments and insertion date: The marginal note records r. 13 inserted on 25 May 2010. The compilation table documents amendments in 2004, 2010 and 2011. Enforcement practice may have been shaped by administrative guidance following those amendments, but such guidance is not present in the Regulations and must be sought from the Act or administrative instruments.

For practitioners, the immediate point is that the Regulations widen the menu of information that authorised bodies can demand, but they do not in the text provided change the available remedies, penalties, or procedural protections. Those are matters for the Act and for any associated policies or administrative instruments.

The Regulations explicitly interact with other statutory instruments by cross-reference, and implicitly interact with a range of legal regimes by making commercial, operational and environmental information requestable.

Statutory cross-references in the Regulations

• Energy Coordination Act 1994: The Regulations operate “for the purposes of section 21 of the Act” (r. 13(1)). The Regulations cannot be read in isolation; s. 21 of the Act is the authorising provision that defines who may request information, and potentially sets compliance procedures and penalties. The Regulations prescribe the content scope that s. 21 notices may include.

• Electricity Industry Act 2004: Item 3(d) limits pricing-information requests to certain licence holders including “a licensee under the Electricity Industry Act 2004” and to persons exempt under Electricity Industry Act 2004 s. 8(1) from s. 7(4) of that Act in specified circumstances. That cross-reference means the Regulations’ reach into pricing-material depends on the status conferred by the Electricity Industry Act.

• Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969: Item 3(d) includes licensees under that Act among those from whom pricing information can be requested. Entities subject to the Petroleum Pipelines Act therefore fall within a specially defined subset for pricing disclosure.

• Electricity Corporations Act 2005: Item 3(d) includes bodies established under s. 4(1) of that Act and their subsidiaries. Entities formed under that statute are thereby placed inside the pricing-information scope.

• Internal cross-references within the Act: Item 3(d) refers to exemptions under s. 11H(1) of the Act from s. 11G(2) of the Act. Those internal references mean that the permissibility of scoring price-calculation information depends on whether a person has an exemption under the specified sections of the Act.

Practical interactions with other legal regimes (implied, not explicit in the text)

• Commercial confidentiality and contract law: Schedule 1 expressly requests contract content (item 3(e)) and operating costs and assets (3(f)), which are typically subject to commercial confidentiality. The Regulations do not provide a statutory carve-out for confidential information. In practice, production of such material may invoke contractual confidentiality clauses, common law duties, or statutory secrecy protections elsewhere. Those protections are not stated in the Regulations and must be located in the Act, in other statutes, or in administrative practice.

• Privacy and data protection: Items such as previous consumption or receipt (item 1), forecast consumption (item 2) and greenhouse gas emissions from premises (item 7) can implicate personal data protections where the person or occupier is an individual or where customer-level data is involved. The Regulations do not reference privacy legislation; compliance will therefore require checking applicable privacy laws, which are outside the text.

• Environmental regulation: Item 7 explicitly requests greenhouse gas emission information. That creates an intersection with environmental statutes, reporting regimes, and potential liabilities arising from emissions disclosures. The Regulations do not specify whether production of such data under the Act interacts with environmental reporting obligations.

• Competition and market regulation: The requestable content in item 3 includes details of wholesale and retail arrangements, quantities and pricing. That material overlaps with competition and market-monitoring functions performed under other statutes or by other regulators. The Regulations do not limit or specify how such material may be shared with other regulatory bodies.

• Commonwealth, State and other jurisdictional instruments: The Regulations are a Western Australian instrument. They do not address whether information produced under them may be transferred to Commonwealth agencies or other jurisdictions, which raises cross-jurisdictional data-sharing questions not answered in the text.

Overall, the Regulations amplify the information-gathering regime available under the Act and tie access to particularly sensitive pricing material to specified regulated entities and exemptions under related Acts. They leave unaddressed any procedural constraints and do not displace or define obligations under other laws; instead, they create potential friction points with confidentiality, privacy, environmental and competition law that must be managed outside the Regulations.

The reprint notes and compilation table included in the text set out the amendment history in summary form. Key chronological points are:

• Original instrument: Energy Coordination Regulations 2004, gazetted 19 March 2004 and commenced 19 March 2004 (r. 2). The compilation table records the original gazettal and commencement.

• Energy Coordination Amendment Regulations 2004: Gazetted 15 June 2004 and commenced 15 June 2004. The text does not specify the content of that 2004 amendment; it appears in the compilation table only.

• Energy Coordination Amendment Regulations 2010: Gazetted 25 May 2010 (with r. 1 and 2 on 25 May 2010 and other regulations on 26 May 2010 per the compilation table). The marginal note to r. 13 states “Regulation 13 inserted: Gazette 25 May 2010 p. 2271.” Schedule 1 is headed as “[Heading inserted: Gazette 25 May 2010 p. 2272],” and the Schedule states it was inserted on that date. Thus the present r. 13 and Schedule 1 were introduced in the 2010 amendment.

• Energy Coordination Amendment Regulations 2011: Gazetted 2 August 2011 and commenced on 2-3 August 2011 depending on provisions. The reprint indicates deletions to parts of the Regulations: the Part 1 heading, r. 3, Part 2 (r. 4-12) and Part 3 heading were deleted with a Gazette citation of 2 August 2011 p. 3165. The effect in the reprint is that the only operative regulation now is r. 13 (inserted 2010), and the earlier parts were removed in 2011.

• Reprint: The document is reprinted as at 21 February 2014, which consolidates the 2004 instrument and the listed amendments. The compilation table explicitly records Reprint 1 as the Energy Coordination Regulations 2004 as at 21 Feb 2014.

What the amendment history shows concretely from the text

• The Schedule 1 content we are analysing was not in the original 2004 Regulations but was inserted in 2010 by a discrete amending regulation. That is documented in the marginal note and Schedule heading.

• The 2011 amendment deleted earlier parts of the Regulations, leaving the later-inserted r. 13 and Schedule 1 as the core operative content captured in the reprint.

• The compilation table records these changes but does not supply the wording of earlier deleted parts or the amendments themselves; the compilation notes therefore establish the provenance and effective dates but do not provide legislative intent or explanatory material.

For practitioners, the amendment history indicates a move in 2010 to codify specific categories of information requestable under s. 21, followed by a pruning in 2011 of other regulatory provisions, leaving this narrower but focused information-prescription instrument. Any historical practice or transitional provisions that accompanied those amendments are not included in the text and must be sought in the amendment instruments or government explanatory materials.

The Regulations, as presented, do not record any judicial or tribunal proceedings. The text includes no citations to cases, and the reprint notes do not list judicial determinations or references. The compilation table and marginal notes document gazettal and amendment dates only.

From the content provided:

• There are no named cases in the Regulations or compilation notes.

• The Regulations contain no footnotes or annotations indicating judicial interpretation or challenges.

• If there has been litigation about the scope or use of the Schedule 1 information requests, it is not reflected in the instrument’s text supplied here. Determining whether any discretion under s. 21 or uses of Schedule 1 information have been litigated would therefore require searching external case law and tribunal records, which are not part of this document.

Given the absence of litigation materials in the source, any advice or analysis that requires knowledge of judicial interpretation of s. 21 or the Schedule 1 categories will have to be supported by independent legal research in reported decisions and tribunal determinations. The Regulations themselves simply state the categories and the relevant cross-references; they do not include or summarise any litigation outcomes.

The Regulations are compact but contain multiple practical traps and hidden frictions for practitioners and regulated parties. The following are concrete, source-grounded risks and points to watch:

• Broad scope for non-licenced parties: While item 3(d) narrows pricing requests to certain licence-holders and exempt suppliers, the other items in Schedule 1 apply generally. That means a non-licenced occupier or small business may still be requested to provide detailed operational, forecast, disruption and emissions data (items 1-2, 4-7). The Regulations do not carve out small businesses or individuals from these categories.

• Pricing carve-out is conditional and specific: Item 3(d) does not give a general pricing immunity; it limits pricing-information requests to enumerated categories. Entities must check whether they fall into any of the listed categories. The carve-out is precise: it names licence types under different Acts and exemptions under specific sections (s. 11H(1) and Electricity Industry Act 2004 s. 8(1)). Misclassifying status can lead to unexpected disclosure obligations.

• No procedural detail or timelines: The Regulations do not state how requests will be made, in what form, and what time the recipient has to respond. That absence produces compliance uncertainty and operational risk for responders who must rely on s. 21 of the Act or on administrative practice.

• No confidentiality or redaction mechanism provided: Schedule 1 requires production of contracts, pricing calculations, operating costs, asset management arrangements and greenhouse gas emissions. The Regulations do not provide statutory protection for commercially sensitive information. Parties will need to invoke contractual confidentiality, statutory protections elsewhere, or negotiate with the requester.

• Wide definition of “energy infrastructure”: Regulation 13(2) expands the meaning of energy infrastructure to include apparatus, facilities, structures, plant and equipment associated with operation. That expansion potentially pulls in a wide array of physical assets that an occupier may not conventionally regard as part of regulated infrastructure.

• Disruption detail includes communications and trading arrangements: Item 4 requires information on communications and trading arrangements during disruptions and recovery. Providing communications materials may implicate third-party confidentiality and raise privileged-document issues if legal advice is recorded in those communications.

• Data volume and record-keeping burden: The specified categories encompass historic and forecast information, operating costs, contractual contents and asset management records. For large organisations this is a large production task; for smaller occupiers it may be disproportionately costly.

• Emissions data is included: Item 7 brings greenhouse gas emissions into scope. That creates potential intersections with environmental reporting regimes and can trigger reputational or regulatory exposure where emissions figures reveal non-compliance with environmental obligations.

• No express limitation on onward use or disclosure: The Regulations do not state whether information provided under s. 21 may be published, shared with other agencies, or used as evidence in regulatory enforcement. That omission creates legal uncertainty about downstream consequences of compliance.

• Amendment and deletion history can obscure current obligations: Parts of the original Regulations were deleted in 2011; r. 13 was inserted in 2010. Entities relying on older copies of the Regulations risk using out-of-date compliance checklists. The reprint date is 21 February 2014; users must ensure they have the current instrument.

Each “gotcha” arises directly from the text and structure of r. 13 and Schedule 1 combined with what the Regulations do not say. Addressing these issues requires cross-referencing the Act’s s. 21, reviewing confidentiality regimes in contract and statutory law, and clarifying procedural expectations with the requesting authority.

Compliance requires two steps: (1) understand whether a lawful request under s. 21 can be made, and (2) prepare internal systems and documentation to respond to requests that relate to the Schedule 1 categories. The Regulations themselves specify the content classes but not procedure; compliance therefore involves practical and legal preparation.

Practical compliance checklist grounded in the Regulations

1. Identify status and scope under item 3(d)

   • Confirm whether your organisation is one of the enumerated entities in item 3(d): a licensee under the Energy Coordination Act 1994, a licensee under the Electricity Industry Act 2004, a licensee under the Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969, a body established under Electricity Corporations Act 2005 s. 4(1) or its subsidiary, a person exempt under s. 11H(1) of the Act from s. 11G(2), or an exempt person under Electricity Industry Act 2004 s. 8(1) meeting the 160 MWh threshold.
   • That status determines whether pricing and price-calculation information can be requested from you. If you might be in that class, coordinate with legal counsel to confirm and prepare to produce pricing-related records.

2. Map data sources to Schedule 1 items

   • Create a records inventory mapping internal systems to the seven Schedule 1 categories: historical/forecast energy flows (items 1-2), wholesale/retail arrangements and contracts (item 3), disruption logs and communications (item 4), infrastructure performance/asset records and costs (item 5), resource/reserve quality and recoverable amounts (item 6), and greenhouse gas emissions data (item 7).
   • Note that “energy infrastructure” per r. 13(2) includes apparatus, plant and equipment associated with operation; include those assets in your mapping.

3. Adopt a document-hold and production protocol

   • Establish an internal point of contact for receiving s. 21 notices and documenting receipt.
   • Set up a document-hold process to preserve the relevant categories of information, including communications related to disruptions, contracts and pricing models.
   • Prepare templates for producing different categories of information, and establish a secure method for transmission.

4. Identify and protect confidential material

   • Flag materials likely to be treated as commercially sensitive: contract content (item 3(e)), pricing calculations (item 3(d) where applicable), operating costs and asset pricing (3(f), 5(e)).
   • Prepare a process to notify the requester of commercial-in-confidence claims where appropriate, and to seek protective conditions, redactions or confidentiality agreements. The Regulations do not provide statutory confidentiality protections; pursue such measures with the requesting authority or through the Act’s procedures.

5. Manage third-party rights

   • Where requested items include third-party contracts or communications, document third-party identities and any contractual confidentiality obligations. Engage third parties early about potential disclosures and, where necessary, seek their consent or seek to negotiate protective measures.

6. Prepare for disruption-related production

   • Maintain a disruption response log that documents the nature, cause and sequence of events (item 4(a)), communications (4(b)), trading arrangements and allocation during recovery (4(c)), and financial impact (4(d)). These records facilitate timely production and reduce reconstruction costs post-event.

7. Address greenhouse gas data

   • If you own or occupy premises that produce greenhouse gas emissions, map how emissions are measured and where records are stored. Determine whether those records overlap with environmental reporting duties and whether disclosure will affect other regulatory obligations.

8. Legal review and privilege

   • Conduct legal review of materials that may be subject to legal privilege, including communications with lawyers about pricing, contracts or disruption responses. Privilege is not referenced in the Regulations; assert privilege where applicable and document the basis.

9. Train staff and set escalation triggers

   • Train key operational, legal and compliance staff on what Schedule 1 covers and on the internal escalation route for s. 21 notices. Ensure executives are aware that pricing and contract details may be requested in specific circumstances.

10. Validate against the Act and other statutes

• Before producing, confirm the statutory basis of the request under s. 21 and check for any conflicting obligations under other statutes (for example, confidentiality, privacy or environmental law). The Regulations do not resolve conflicts.

Drafting and negotiation tactics when served with a request

• Require written notice that cites s. 21 and identifies the specific Schedule 1 items requested. The Regulations authorise requests for items in Schedule 1; require the requester to identify which specific sub-items are sought to limit scope.

• Seek reasonable time to comply, specifying the volume and estimated production timeline. The Regulations are silent on timelines; negotiate them where feasible.

• Propose confidentiality protections or protective orders prior to producing commercially sensitive material. Because the Regulations do not provide an express confidentiality regime, obtain written undertakings or administrative protective arrangements.

• If you consider the request outside Schedule 1 or beyond the Act’s authority, seek a legal determination. The Regulations list types of information that may be requested; contested scope issues will be resolved under the Act or by judicial review.

Recordkeeping and audit trail

• Keep an audit trail of what was produced, the basis for production, any redactions, privilege claims and communications with the requester. That trail will be important if disputes over disclosure arise.

Final note

The Regulations frame the content universe of requests under s. 21 but do not provide procedural, timing, confidentiality, or penalties detail. Effective compliance therefore depends on integrating them with the Act’s s. 21 procedures, internal records governance, confidentiality controls, and legal advice about privilege and competing statutory duties.