Australia’s energy ministers have scrapped plans for a new rule on grid connections, in a potential win for renewable energy storage. 

Energy ministers at both the state and federal levels have rejected a contentious rule proposal from the Energy Security Board (ESB) regarding grid connections. 

The proposal for Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP) had faced criticism from renewable investment organisations, with the Smart Energy Council referring to it as a “solar-stopper” and others arguing that it would result in billions of dollars of investments being taken overseas. 

The ESB has been advised to work with government officials to develop a “more orderly” mechanism to manage grid congestion and provide proposals by mid-year. 

The win for the renewable sector has been welcomed by various organisations, including Nexa Advisory and the Clean Energy Investors Group. 

The ministers have also agreed on five strategic priorities for climate and energy policy in the coming year, including investing in adaptation and resilience to climate change and delivering a coordinated approach to improving energy productivity. 

The CRM and priority access model reforms, if approved later this year, are estimated to yield net benefits of up to $5 billion for industry and consumers and reduce emissions by 23 million tonnes by 2050.