2017/18 planning and reporting

We have published our work programme report for the period covering 1 July to 31 October 2017. This is a progress report against the work programme we published in July and covers our priority 1, 2 and 3 projects.

We commissioned UMR Ltd to undertake two surveys in January/February 2017, one of consumers and the other of electricity industry stakeholders, to better understand how they perceive the electricity industry.

This is the fifth year the Authority has undertaken the surveys to measure competition, reliability and efficiency. The surveys are carried out every two years – recent surveys were previously undertaken in January/ February 2015 and January/February 2013.

We have published our 2017/18 work programme. The work programme is a non-statutory planning document that gives indicative information about our major projects for the year ahead. It supports our 2017/18 Statement of Performance Expectations (SPE).

When developing the work programme we considered submissions and feedback from stakeholders on our consultation on the 2017/18 appropriations and work programme. We thank those who provided feedback.

We made a significant shift in our strategic focus last year, and in doing so created a solid foundation to guide and drive our work. We will continue to follow this course in 2017/18.

We are focused on removing any unwarranted barriers to market entry, expansion, exit, innovation and technological change. This includes increasing the scope for competitive provision of support services to distribution and transmission businesses. Likewise, we want to improve consumers’ access to and participation in markets, and remove unwarranted barriers to consumers and their agents (eg, energy services companies) obtaining accurate information when they want it.

We continue to focus on creating the conditions for more efficient prices in the market, and ensuring price-related information is readily available. In particular, we will continue to support and encourage Transpower and distributors to implement changes to their pricing structures.

We are focused on developing the hedge market to provide new products for market participants to manage their price risks, and provide better price signals about future supply risks and more options for parties to respond in ways that address those risks. Similarly, we are focused on making it easier for the market and participants to respond to changing market conditions or adverse events.

Our work programme comprises:

1. Key regulatory projects: work that may result in significant new Code amendments or involves significant new market facilitation initiatives. These projects could involve substantial engagement with stakeholders.
2. Other outputs: including market service improvement projects, implementation projects, other Code amendments and market facilitation measures (including operational projects to enhance consumer participation), post-implementation reviews, monitoring, information and education initiatives, and compliance initiatives. 

We remain flexible and responsive in the management of the work programme. We may need to reprioritise work during the year, for example if new projects are required or if new information is available about a specific project. We will review and update this work programme on a regular basis, and will publish summary reports on progress every four months.

We have published a summary of submissions from the consultation on our 2017/18 appropriations and work programme. We have also published our report to the Minister under section 129(2) of the Electricity Act.

The timing of this release follows the Government’s release of Budget 2017 on Thursday 25 May.

We manage our funding prudently and are committed to holding our operational costs constant for 2017/18.

The appropriations were finalised as part of the Budget and will be included in our 2017/18 Statement of Performance Expectations, which we will publish in June 2017.

We are finalising the 2017/18 work programme and expect to publish it in late June 2017.