Sarah Gillies appointed Acting Chief Executive of the Electricity Authority
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The Electricity Authority's Board has appointed Sarah Gillies as Acting Chief Executive, following the announcement of James Stevenson-Wallace's departure. Sarah will lead the Authority from Thursday 13 October while recruitment and on-boarding of a permanent Chief Executive takes place.
Sarah is an experienced leader and lawyer, holding senior regulatory, legal and commercial roles at Telecom and CoreLogic in the past, in addition to roles at private law firms. Since joining the Electricity Authority in 2019 as General Manager Legal, Monitoring and Compliance, Sarah has developed the function and helped navigate the Authority through a wide range of legal, compliance and monitoring work. This includes the review into the events of 9 August 2021, the 2019 UTS investigation, and implementation of the Trading Conduct Rules.
The Board is confident that with Sarah’s leadership, the Electricity Authority will continue to deliver its statutory objectives to promote competition in, reliable supply by, and the efficient operation of, the electricity industry in New Zealand for the long-term benefit of consumers.
The Board intends to advertise the permanent position in early September 2022. Acting arrangements for the GM Legal, Monitoring and Compliance will be confirmed shortly.
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Consultation period extended on proposed permanent Code amendment for materially large contracts
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The consultation period on a proposed permanent Code amendment to impose restrictions on very large electricity contracts that have the ability to shift market prices has been extended by one month.
Submissions must now be lodged by 5pm on Monday 31 October 2022.
The proposed permanent Code amendment, which is in response to a potential issue observed by the Authority during its review into competition in the wholesale market, will prohibit generators from giving effect to a contract of net 150MW or more unless certain conditions are met.
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Commercial market-making services to commence
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Bold Trading will begin providing commercial market-making services on 1 September 2022.
Read our 27 July media release here, or find out more details here.
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Spot prices fall as hydro storage increases
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The Authority has observed that spot electricity prices have fallen lately due to the abundance of available hydro generation.
The recent spell of severe weather that hit the country has led to high inflows into New Zealand's hydro schemes.
As of 25 August, hydro storage was sitting at 77 per cent of the theoretical maximum storage at 3400GWh, up 28 per cent on the same time last year.
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Spot price risk disclosure statements and certificates ‘stress tests’
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Participants are reminded to check they have the appropriate processes and structures in place to submit their spot price risk disclosure statements and certificates on time. Failure to do so may be a breach of the Code.
The Authority recently closed several breach allegations where participants had failed to submit statements or certificates to the Stress Test Registrar by the due date.
Common reasons used by participants for not submitting the statements or certificates on time were that they were unaware of the obligation, or that the participant had not updated their email address with the Registrar.
Where possible participants are encouraged to use a generic email address so they are not dependant on one staff member. For example: operations@retailer.co.nz
Sarah Gillies, General Manager of Legal, Monitoring and Compliance said “Participants who breach the Code are subject to the compliance Code breach process, with enforcement decisions made in accordance with the Authority’s Compliance Strategy. This may take into consideration the participant’s compliance history and attitude to compliance.”
If you have difficulty accessing the portal for uploading statements or certificates, or you have not received your login credentials, please get in touch with the Registrar directly.
Email stregistrar@nzx.com or phone +64 4 471 4394.
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RTP changes to the system operator's Policy Statement
Closing 5pm 30 August 2022
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Settlement Residual Allocation Methodology (SRAM) Consultation
Closing 5pm 27 September 2022
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Inefficient Price Discrimination in very large electricity contracts
Closing 5pm 31 October 2022
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Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street, PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
Tel: + 64 4 460 8860 Email: communications@ea.govt.nz
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