At today's COAG Energy Council meeting, Ministers agreed to implement the Retailer Reliability Obligation - a key priority for the Australian Government.

The Council reached agreement on all other items on the agenda.

The Retailer Reliability Obligation will ensure more dispatchable generation will be available to meet the electricity needs of Australian families and businesses.

The Energy Security Board (ESB) will now draft subordinate legislation for implementation on 1 July 2019.

Together with state and territory ministers I thank the ESB for its hard work on this important reform.

The Council received updates from market bodies on work to address these challenges facing the National Electricity Market in the short and medium term, and asked ESB to come back with a specific work program to deliver these priorities by 31 January 2019. It is crucial we take a whole of system approach to addressing these challenges.

Other changes agreed to will support priority projects in the Integrated System Plan, including streamlining regulatory processes. This will support timely upgrades to transmission networks and investment in synchronous condensers to help keep the lights on in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

I look forward to continuing to work with the Energy Council to further reduce power prices for Australians and ensure the lights remain on.

The communique can be found at coagenergycouncil.gov.au/publications/21st-energy-council-ministerial-meeting