Code amendment for dispatchable demand – late bid revisions
We have decided to amend the Code to ensure that constrained on and constrained off payments made to dispatchable load purchasers align with the intended economic purpose of such payments. The amendment provides for the situation when a dispatch bid for a dispatch-capable load station is revised during the 30 minutes prior to the start of the relevant trading period. The amendment will promote the efficiency limb of our statutory objective by ensuring that constrained on and constrained off payments are made for the intended reasons.
We have published a paper outlining the reasons for this decision and a summary of the submissions received. We will publish the Gazette notice shortly and the amendment will come into force on 1 December 2015.
In October 2014 we granted Exemption 213 to Vector Limited (Vector). This exempted Vector from the obligation in clause 12A.5(2) of the Code to ensure that the total value of additional security specified in its use-of-system agreement with Hunet Limited (Hunet) is not more than Vector’s reasonable estimate of the line function services charges that Hunet is required to provide for any two-month period. Exemption 213 was due to expire at the end of this month. We have now amended Exemption 213, so that it will not expire until 31 October 2016.
The Gazette notice for the amendment is available on the Code exemptions page of our website. The amendment came into force on 23 October 2015.
We have granted an exemption under section 90(1)(b) of the Electricity Industry Act 2010 (Act) to Dr Patrick Strange in relation to his appointment as a director of Auckland International Airport Limited, while also being a director of Mighty River Power Limited. Section 90 permits the Authority to grant exemptions from obligations in Part 3 of the Act, which relates to the separation of distribution from certain generation and retailing activities. Dr Patrick Strange has been granted an exemption from compliance with sections 75, 77 to 79, and 88 of the Act, on the conditions set out in the Gazette notice.
Gazette notices for exemptions made under section 90 of the Act are available on the Act exemptions page of our website. The exemption came into force on 22 October 2015.
We have decided to discontinue two investigations, as outlined below.
The Compliance Committee decided to discontinue an investigation into the alleged breach by Transpower New Zealand Limited as the system operator. On 28 August 2014, the system operator, in adjusting the dispatch schedule, failed to incorporate an anticipated demand change for a potline offload at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. The system operator immediately identified the breach and corrected it. The system operator has taken steps to prevent recurrence of a similar breach and the parties to the investigation did not require a settlement.
The Compliance Committee decided to discontinue an investigation into the alleged breaches by Delta Utility Services Limited (Delta). Delta failed to have all its interim certified metering installations certified by 1 April 2015. Delta has now recertified its metering installations, updated the registry information accordingly and the parties to the investigation did not require a settlement.
We have approved two settlements, as outlined below.
We have approved a settlement between Alpine Energy Limited (Alpine), Meridian Energy Limited (Meridian) and the Electricity Authority as the market administrator. Alpine failed to have all its interim certified metering installations certified by 1 April 2015.
We have approved a settlement between Transpower New Zealand Limited as the system operator, Meridian and Contact Energy Limited. The system operator failed to correctly model the contingent event risk associated with a planned HVDC harmonic filter outage.
The Electricity Authority and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority have released a joint consultation paper on the proposed 2016/17 appropriations and their respective work programmes.
