The Government Policy Statement on Electricity Governance (GPS) set the objectives and outcomes that the Government expected of the Commission, including a detailed list of objectives and outcomes that the Commission was expected to accomplish. It required that the Commission use its powers of persuasion and promotion, and provision of information to achieve its objectives, in preference to recommending regulation and rule changes.

  • The principal objectives of the Commission in relation to electricity were:
    • to ensure that electricity was produced and delivered to all classes of consumers in an efficient, fair, reliable, and environmentally sustainable manner and,
    • to promote and facilitate the efficient use of electricity.
  • Consistent with those principal objectives, the Commission was also required to achieve, in relation to electricity, the following specific outcomes:
    • energy and other resources were used efficiently;
    • risks (including price risks) relating to security of supply were properly and efficiently managed;
    • barriers to competition in electricity were minimised for the long-term benefit of end-users;
    • incentives for investment in generation, transmission, lines, energy efficiency, and demand-side management were maintained or enhanced and did not discriminate between public and private investment;
    • the full costs of producing and transporting each additional unit of electricity were signalled;
    • delivered electricity costs and prices were subject to sustained downward pressure;
    • the electricity sector contributed to achieving the Government's climate change objectives by minimising hydro spill, efficiently managing transmission and distribution losses and constraints, promoting demand-side management and energy efficiency, and removing barriers to investment in new generation technologies, renewables and distributed generation.

The Government Policy Statement on Electricity Governance(external link) (GPS) set out the Government's expectations of the Commission.

The Commission was dissolved on 1 October 2010 and replaced by the Electricity Authority.