The Board and staff of the Authority would like to thank all those who have participated in the Authority’s work in many valuable and different ways during the year.
The Authority office will close at noon on Thursday, 24 December 2014 and will reopen on Tuesday, 5 January 2016.
The next edition of Market Brief will be published on Tuesday, 12 January 2016.
We wish all our stakeholders an enjoyable, relaxing and safe Christmas and we look forward to continuing our working relationships with you in 2016.
2016/17 appropriations and work programme submissions
We have published the submissions received on our consultation on our 2016/17 appropriations and work programme.
We will be reporting to the Minister of Energy and Resources in February 2016 on the results of the consultation and with our recommended 2016/17 appropriations.
We have published a report that outlines progress against the projects in our 2015/16 work programme. The report covers the period 1 July to 31 October 2015.
We have decided to amend the Code by making a number of discrete amendments to various Parts of the Code. The amendments are to Parts 1, 3, 6, and 8 to 15 of the Code. Apart from one amendment that will come into force on 15 January 2016, the rest of the amendments will come into force on 1 February 2016. We will soon also publish a decision and reasons paper, and a summary of submissions for this Code amendment.
Two new exemptions granted and current exemption revoked
We have granted and gazetted two new exemptions:
Mighty River Power Limited (No. 233) from complying with the obligation in clause 8(g) of Schedule 15.3 of the Code to provide non half-hour submission information instead of half-hour submission information for distributed unmetered load.
Legacy Metering Group Limited (No. 235) from complying with the obligation in clause 1(1)(a)(i) of Schedule 10.5 of the Code to ensure that an initial metering equipment provider (MEP) audit is completed within three months of first becoming an MEP.
As a result of granting Exemption No. 233, we have also revoked Exemption No. 169, which we had granted in July 2013. Exemption No. 169 had become redundant.
The Gazette notices, including reasons for the approvals and the revocation, are available on our website. The exemptions came into force on 11 December 2015.
Investigation of an alleged breach of the Low Fixed Charge Regulations by The Lines Company Limited
In February 2014, the Authority received an allegation that the way The Lines Company Limited (TLC) determines a consumer’s variable charge breaches the Electricity (Low Fixed Charge Tariff Option for Domestic Consumers) Regulations 2004 (LFC Regulations).
TLC determines a consumer’s variable charge for its low-fixed charge tariff (LFC tariff) by using the consumer’s average peak demand in kilowatts, rather than the consumer’s consumption in kilowatt hours.
After a detailed investigation, the Authority’s Compliance Committee decided, at its 21 November 2014 meeting, to discontinue the investigation into whether TLC’s variable charge was a ‘variable charge’ as defined by regulation 4(1) of the LFC Regulations.
In effect, the decision means the Authority accepts that TLC, and other distributors, may determine the variable charge for their LFC tariff by using kilowatt demand, rather than kilowatt hours.
To help industry stakeholders understand the Authority’s decision, the Authority has decided to publish the investigator’s report that the Compliance Committee considered in deciding to discontinue the investigation.
Readers should note that the Compliance Committee did not accept recommendation 1(f) in the investigator's report to recommend to MBIE that the LFC Regulations be clarified. The Authority has also redacted certain personal details from the report to protect the privacy of natural persons.
We have approved a settlement between The Power Company Limited, Electricity Invercargill Limited, Meridian Energy Limited, Powershop New Zealand Limited and the Electricity Authority in its role as the market administrator.
The settlement relates to the failure by The Power Company Limited and Electricity Invercargill Limited to have all their interim certified metering installations certified by 1 April 2015.
We are proposing a number of changes to the participant audit regime. The consultation paper proposes amendments to the Code, amendments to existing guidelines, and the creation of new guidelines.
We have published a consultation paper, and a supporting companion paper, on the implications of evolving technologies for the pricing of distribution services.
We have published a consultation paper that proposes to amend the Code to alter the manner in which the system operator and other market operation service providers perform their roles.
