Particular provisions in Part 13 of the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code) require participants to make information available using the 'approved system'.

Clause 1.1 of the Code defines 'approved system' as "the system or systems required to convey information between persons in accordance with this Code as may be approved from time to time by the Authority".

Other Part 13 provisions require that, if a particular approved system or other means of providing information is unavailable, the relevant participant must follow backup procedures specified by the WITS manager (or in the case of clause 13.81, specified by the system operator) to make the relevant information available.

The Approved Systems Document sets out:

  • the approved systems, and which Part 13 provision(s) they apply to
  • the backup procedures specified by the WITS manager (or in the case of clause 13.81, the system operator), and which Part 13 provision(s) the backup procedures apply to
  • how an approved system or backup procedure is changed.

The Approved Systems Document superseded the information system definition (ISD), and is shorter and simpler than the ISD. This is because the Electricity Industry Participation Code Amendment (Code Review Programme) 2017 (CRP amendment), revoked the ‘information system’ and moved most of the systems specified in the ISD for conveying information into the Code itself (for example, by specifying in particular Part 13 Code provisions that information must be provided using ‘WITS’).

The CRP amendment came into effect on 5 October 2017.