2020/21 finalised work programme
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Our work programme details the key projects we intend to progress during the 2020/21 financial year. The work programme enables us to continue to respond to sector priorities and deliver against our statutory objectives, the Electricity Price Review programme, and key projects continuing from the 2019/20 year.
Traditionally, we have included the market enhancements omnibus, and the annual code review programme as work programme items. This work will continue each year as business as usual operations recognising these activities are on-going as part of continuous improvement.
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Battery energy storage systems
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The Authority has updated its work programme to restart work on integrating battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the instantaneous reserves market.
The Authority is considering how BESS could offer reserve as injection into the power system. Currently BESS can only offer reserve as interruptible load while consuming energy from the power system, by stopping charging in response to a drop in frequency.
The Market Development Advisory Group recently recommended this work be carried out on a priority basis. You can read the Group’s recommendations paper on enabling participation of new generating technologies here.
This relates to our wider work on examining the security and resilience of the electricity sector as part of the Electricity Price Review recommendations.
We expect to release a paper for consultation by mid 2021.
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Rulings Panel decision on 14 December 2018 under-frequency event
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In January 2020 the Authority made a final determination that Transpower was the causer of the 14 December 2018 under-frequency event (UFE).
Transpower New Zealand Limited, as grid owner, referred the Authority’s final determination to the Electricity Rulings Panel.
The Rulings Panel has recently released its decision, affirming the Authority’s determination that Transpower was the causer of the UFE on 14 December 2018 at 12.20 pm. The Rulings Panel decision can be found here.
The Authority’s original decision is available here.
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COVID-19 and Alert Level effects on disconnections and debt
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The Authority has published an updated commentary on debt and disconnection information we’ve received from retailers under section 46(2)(a) of the Electricity Industry Act 2010.
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IPAG meeting papers published
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The papers from the Innovation and Participation Advisory Group's (IPAG) 22nd meeting held via Zoom on Wednesday, 2 September 2020, have now been published and are available below.
The IPAG advanced and refined it’s thinking on its current Demand Response review. IPAG also attended a portion of the Authority Board’s strategy day.
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Authority website - important announcements
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Authority website maintenance - 9am to 12pm, Thursday, 15 October 2020
The Authority website will be unavailable from 9am to 12pm on Thursday, 15 October 2020. This planned outage is for necessary routine maintenance to the website.
We appreciate your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Changes to the way the Code is displayed
We’ve taken the opportunity to make some small changes to the website including the way we publish the Code.
From Friday, 16 October 2020, the Code will be published as downloadable searchable PDFs with a brief summary for each section. Users can search and download a specific section of the Code or download the Code as one document.
This simplifies the Code section and responds to how people like to view and download both individual parts and the full Code.
If you have any questions about the upcoming planned outage or feedback about the changes to the new Code format, please email: communications@ea.govt.nz |
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Reminder: Regulatory change affecting traders of electricity contracts on the ASX
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The Authority is gathering more and better-quality data on risk management contracts as part of its ongoing work to make improvements to the wholesale electricity market.
In October, a Code change will come into effect requiring participants trading electricity contracts on the ASX to give permission for their de-anonymised trading data to be shared by the ASX with the Authority.
Many participants have agreed to this arrangement on a time limited basis already. The Code change will make this an ongoing requirement from Thursday, 29 October 2020.
If you trade electricity contracts on the ASX you need to:
- sign a consent form to share your data with the Authority, and return it to the ASX and the Authority
- ensure you have appropriate arrangements in place with your broker and other market intermediaries including providing your account identifier to the ASX.
The consent form is available on the Authority’s website and should be returned by Tuesday, 20 October 2020. At this stage this Code change does not remove participants’ obligations to report trades onto the Hedge Disclosure Website (Subpart 5 of Part 13 of the Code).
Please contact HME.feedback@ea.govt.nz if you have any questions.
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Reminder: Real time pricing online session - Tuesday 20 October 2020
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The Authority, alongside the system operator and NZX, are hosting monthly online engagement sessions covering the market changes being delivered by the real time pricing (RTP) project.
The first session, “what is RTP and why is it important”, is on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 from 3pm until 4.30pm. The session will cover the drivers behind the change to real-time pricing and the issues being addressed by this project.
If you would like to attend, please email RTP@ea.govt.nz with the following details:
- Full name
- Email address
- Contact number
- Organisation
- Role
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Reminder: Workshop on guidelines for raising consumer awareness of Utilities Disputes and Powerswitch services
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The Authority has produced guidelines to assist retailers and distributors to understand and implement the Code change which requires them to raise consumer awareness of Utilities Disputes and Powerswitch in certain situations.
On Thursday 15 October we will be holding a workshop, via Zoom, to answer questions about the Code change and to discuss how we can help retailers and distributors to comply with the Code requirements.
If you would like to register for the Zoom workshop please email AwarenessOfUDandPS@ea.govt.nz
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Guidelines for raising consumer awareness of Utilities Disputes and Powerswitch services
Ending: 10/11/2020 at 5pm
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New Zealand's annual ShakeOut takes place this week
Thursday 15 October 2020 at 9.30am
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Level 7, Harbour Tower, 2 Hunter Street, PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
Tel: + 64 4 460 8860 Email: communications@ea.govt.nz
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