Archive - Dispute resolution scheme

Any person, including potential consumers and owners and occupiers of land, whether or not they have a consumer contract, is to have access to a dispute resolution system for resolving complaints about electricity distributors and retailers.

The approved dispute resolution scheme is the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme. A copy of the constitution and other documents that comprise The Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme are available on the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commission website(external link).

The Authority is responsible for enforcing compliance with the requirement in the Electricity Industry Act 2010 to be a member of the dispute resolution scheme.

The Minister of Consumer Affairs may grant exemptions from this requirement. Parties wishing to seek exemptions should contact the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. 

Approved scheme

On 10 December 2009, pursuant to section 158G of the Electricity Act, the Commission notified that it had approved the complaints resolutions system called the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme, established under the document entitled Constitution for the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme dated the 30th day of October 2009. The approval took effect from 1 April 2010.

The Commission worked closely with the Gas Industry Co (GIC) to co-ordinate approaches to approval and governance of an electricity and gas consumer complaints scheme. The GIC made a recommendation to the Associate Minister of Energy and Resources to approve the same scheme under section 43E of the Gas Act. The Associate Minister accepted that recommendation and also notified approval of the complaints resolution system called the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme, on 10 December 2009.

From 1 April 2010, every retailer and distributor (including Transpower) must participate in the approved scheme. This means that if complaints are unable to first be resolved by the relevant retailer or distributor, all electricity and gas consumers will be able to refer their complaint to a single, independent, free disputers resolution service.

Amendments to give effect to the Electricity Industry Bill

In late September 2010, the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commission (EGCC) notified the Electricity Commission of proposed changes to the EGCC Constitution that were needed to give effect to the Electricity Industry Bill. As the changes proposed were simply to ensure the provisions of the Bill are complied with, or to correct minor typographical changes, it was not considered that the changes altered the nature of the scheme or scheme members' obligations in any other way. Therefore, the Commission approved the changes under clause A6.2A(d) of the EGCC Constitution. A change marked copy of the EGCC Constitution can be found on the EGCC website.

Consultation on proposal to approve a joint electicity and gas complaints resolution scheme

In March 2009, the Commission and GIC jointly agreed to select, for the purposes of consultation, the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commission scheme (EGCC scheme) as their preferred provider of a gas and electricity industry consumer complaints resolution system. This followed assessment of all the applications that were received in December 2009 in response to the request for applications issued in September 2008 (see related documents).

The Commission and GIC published a consultation paper in March 2009 that assessed the industry-based scheme that would be provided by the EGCC against other practicable options for an energy-based complaints scheme.

Request for Applications - September 2008

In September 2008, the Commission and GIC sought applications from persons who wished to be selected as the preferred candidate for approval as a complaints resolution scheme under the Electricity Act and the Gas Act 1992.

This request for applications (RFA) provided background information, outlined the timetable and process for applications, set out the criteria that an application would be assessed against, and outlined the timetable for establishing the complaints resolution scheme, once approved.

Preferred provider

A number of applications were received in response and a joint panel from the Commission and GIC evaluated the applications received. The Commission and GIC agreed a preferred applicant in late February 2009. The details of the preferred applicant's scheme were outlined in the March 2009 consultation paper, “Proposal to approve a joint electricity and gas complaints resolution scheme”.
Proposed achievement standards

In March 2008, the Commission and GIC issued a consultation paper on Approval of a Joint Gas and Electricity Complaints Resolution Scheme. The consultation paper outlined a reasonably detailed set of proposed achievement standards that a scheme would be considered against for approval.

In September 2008, the Commission published an analysis of submissions received in response to the proposed achievement standards.