Draft guidelines published: Improving transparency of consumers’ electricity charges
The Authority has published draft guidelines for retailers’ and distributors’ communications about price changes with media and consumers. The Authority has also published a paper setting out its decisions and reasons for the guidelines.
Feedback on the draft guidelines is requested by 5pm on Tuesday 17 February 2015.
The Authority is holding a workshop on Tuesday 10 February, to give parties an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback about the draft guidelines. The Authority is particularly interested in obtaining feedback about the practical implications of the guidelines.
Please email conference@ea.govt.nz with ‘Improving transparency workshop’ in the subject line to register your interest in attending the workshop and to advise any catering requirements. The workshop will be held in the Authority’s Boardroom at Level 7, ASB Bank Tower, 2 Hunter Street, Wellington, and will run from 11.30am-2pm with a light lunch provided.
The Authority considers that improving transparency of consumers’ electricity charges would promote its statutory objective of increasing competition in the retail market due to more engaged consumers. It would also improve consumers’ confidence in the market, which will improve regulatory stability and market durability.
New region types now available on the Authority’s EMI website: Zones and Network participants
The Authority’s Electricity Market Information (EMI) website (www.emi.ea.govt.nz) provides access to data, market performance metrics, and analytical tools. Region types used in the reports and datasets allow users to select breakdowns of information that are relevant to their needs and allow them to draw location-specific insights. Such information can assist with market commentary, aid understanding, and facilitate efficient decision-making by participants or potential market entrants.
Two new region types are now available:
Zones in retail and wholesale reports.
Zones divide the country into five distinct regions – three in the North Island and two in the South Island. The region type is available in both retail and wholesale reports on EMI, bridging the retail and wholesale markets, and allowing users to view a national story with some general regional context. The derivation of these zones is transparent and mappings are published in the NSP table report www.emi.ea.govt.nz/r/k24k0.
Downloading data from the grid demand trends report (www.emi.ea.govt.nz/r/mhzkt) and undertaking some simple analysis shows us that in 2014 national demand (GWh) increased for the first time since 2010. A closer look at the breakdown by zones shows us that demand in the Upper South Island again had the highest growth, year on year, at 2.4%. This growth was followed by the Lower South Island at 2.0%, Lower North Island at 0.94%, Central North Island at 0.74% and Upper North Island at 0.5% in 2014. Further analysis of the data would be required to understand which of the many factors that influence demand are behind these differences.
Network participants in retail reports.
Although strictly not regions, network participants refer to the participant responsible under the Code for ICP identifiers that are connected to electricity line assets. This region type is available on selected retail reports and allows users to look at retail statistics by participant. This provides useful insights for activity on particular line assets. For example, see installed solar capacity by selected network participants at www.emi.ea.govt.nz/r/lqnde.
Like the existing region types, these types are consistently applied through historical data and sum up to national totals enabling accurate trend analysis. To download a complete dataset on any report select ‘All regions’. An example is downloading market share by trader for all zones www.emi.ea.govt.nz/r/kk1gr.
For any questions not covered in report notes or to provide feedback on EMI please email emi@ea.govt.nz.
Reminder: Participant registration and information update
The Authority reminds participants that it is their responsibility to register with the Authority as a participant, and ensure the information they provide for registration is up to date. Please check that all information is up-to-date including contact names and details that may have changed.
Call for nominations for SRC, WAG and RAG—due in one week
A reminder that nominations for membership of the Security and Reliability Council (SRC) are due by 5pm on Tuesday, 10 February 2015. Nominations and accompanying documents should be emailed to info@ea.govt.nz with 'Nomination for SRC membership' in the subject line.
Nominations for the Chairs of the Retail Advisory Group (RAG) and the Wholesale Advisory Group (WAG) are also due by 5pm on Tuesday, 10 February 2015. Nominations and accompanying documents should be emailed to rag@ea.govt.nz or wag@ea.govt.nz with ‘Chairperson nomination for Retail Advisory Group’ or ‘Chairperson nomination for Wholesale Advisory Group’, whichever applies, in the subject line.
