The Authority has also met the policy objective of s42(2)(g) of the Act, which requires the Authority to facilitate, or provide for, an active market for trading financial hedge contracts for electricity. New market-maker arrangements for trading on the NZ electricity futures market have been adopted by the ASX and the large generators without the Authority amending the Code. The new market-maker arrangements have sharply reduced the bid-ask spreads for futures contracts and substantially increased trading volumes, providing the foundation for an increasingly active hedge market to develop over time.
An overview document on these developments has been published and is available at
http://www.ea.govt.nz/our-work/programmes/market/hedge-market-development/