On 1 November 2026 the National Electricity Market (NEM), the grid that covers Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, started the main release of its Flexible Trading Arrangements. From now on an EV charger, a home battery or another controllable device can be metered and settled separately from the rest of the house, without a second connection to the street. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are outside the NEM and are not covered.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) made the final rule, "Unlocking CER benefits through flexible trading", on 15 August 2024. The market operator AEMO is putting it in place in two steps. Release 1 on 31 May 2026 added Type 9 metering for small, predictable flows such as kerbside EV chargers and street lights. Release 2, which started on 1 November, adds Type 8 metering and secondary settlement points.
How a secondary settlement point works
Until now the market saw a home as one number: the net flow through the main meter at the connection point. A secondary settlement point (SSP) is a separately metered point behind that main connection. Energy measured at the SSP is subtracted when the main connection point is settled, so the same kilowatt-hour is not counted twice.
For a household this means a retailer can build a plan around the car charger or the battery alone. Examples are a dedicated charging tariff, or a virtual power plant offer built around the battery. Metering built into the device itself can qualify, as long as it meets the technical standards and approvals. An energy readout in the charger's app is not enough on its own.
Limits
Participation is voluntary. Nobody has to install another meter, and the start date does not mean any retailer already sells a product that uses it. Small customers also do not get multiple retailers at one address. The AEMC kept that option for large customers, such as a factory that wants a separate provider to manage one big load.
AEMO created a new NMI Service Provider role for the work around these points, and it requires accreditation. If customer-provided metering at an SSP breaks and is not repaired within 20 business days, that point drops out of settlement.
The AEMC estimated up to A$100 million in benefits over 20 years from the metering changes for street lights and public EV chargers alone. For an EV owner the real question is still whether a retailer offers a plan for the charger and whether it beats the current one once equipment costs are included.
For anyone building energy monitoring at home, the interesting part is the data path. A charger or battery with approved built-in metering can now supply the readings the market settles on, so metering inside the house can end up on the bill.