As per the schedule for the development and release of the working papers, which was announced in the Market Brief on 16 July 2013, the Authority has prepared the connection charges working paper to better understand whether there are efficiency problems with existing transmission connection charges. The matters this paper examines are:
whether there is potential for connection assets to be inefficiently classified as interconnection assets
whether the asset component of the connection charge, which is based on applying average depreciation to all connection pool assets, is inefficient
whether the connection pool cost allocation methodology, for the recovery of maintenance, operating and overhead costs, is inefficient.
Submissions on this consultation paper are due by 5pm on Tuesday, 17 June 2014.
Participants are invited to register their interest in attending one-day registry training workshops proposed to be held in Auckland and Christchurch in the last week of June 2014.
These workshops will include some theory, but will mostly involve guided, hands-on exercises using the registry itself. The exercises will cover the full lifecycle of an installation control point, and the roles of distributors, traders and metering equipment providers. There will be some required pre-course reading, and attendees at the Christchurch workshop will need to bring their own WIFI-enabled laptops with MS Excel installed. Attendees can choose to do the exercises individually or in teams of two.
Participants can register their interest in attending by emailing marketoperations@ea.govt.nz, with the proposed number of attendees and the preferred location, by 4pm on 14 May 2014. Spaces at the courses will be limited and, if necessary, the number of attendees from any one business may be restricted. There will be no cost to attend. Final dates and arrangements will be confirmed in due course.
Information plays an important part in building market confidence and strength.
To assist interested parties in tracking market development, the Authority publishes NZ electricity hedge contracts as a standard section of its weekly Market Brief.
