Consultations

To support the implementation of real-time pricing (RTP), the Authority is consulting on changes to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code). This is expected to be the third and final Code amendment consultation for RTP prior to go-live on 01 November 2022.

Currently, the spot prices published in real-time are only indicative. The final spot prices, used to settle the wholesale electricity market, are not available until at least two days after real-time.

Significant differences can sometimes arise between indicative and final spot prices, and neither may fully reflect prevailing real-time conditions. These factors increase the likelihood that consumers and participants will make inefficient decisions. 

The proposed implementation of RTP will make spot price signals more actionable and resource efficient for all decision-makers.

The Authority has made good progress since the RTP project began in 2017.

This latest consultation paper follows on from previous work undertaken by the Authority for RTP. These works are as follows:

• Real-time pricing proposal consultation paper in August 2017 (Here)
• Proposal for the design of the remaining elements of real-time pricing consultation paper in March 2019 (Here)
• Implementing spot market settlement on real-time pricing decision paper in June 2019 (Here).

The items discussed in this consultation paper can be categorised as either significant or minor changes.

The significant changes proposed by the Authority involve:

• changes to the scheduling and dispatch process during scarcity pricing situations
• changes to the reserve risk-violation tranche prices and volumes,
• the pricing error claim process and
• reconciliation manager access to metering data.

The minor changes proposed by the Authority are either minor technical and non-controversial changes or amendments to account for previous drafting oversights.

If you would like to discuss the proposal please contact WholesaleConsultation@ea.govt.nz

The Authority anticipates that go-live for RTP will commence on 01 November 2022.

Any changes made to the Code to deliver RTP will not come into effect until RTP has commenced.

We consulted on the remaining elements of the design for spot market settlement on real-time pricing (RTP).

This second consultation followed our August 2017 consultation on the real-time pricing proposal. 

The three elements of the design presented in this second consultation paper were:

• full details of our proposal for ‘dispatch-lite’ (a form of dispatchable demand for smaller purchasers), now expanded to include distributed generation
• the pricing that should apply during shortfalls in instantaneous reserve cover
• a process for reviewing the dollar amounts assigned to the default scarcity pricing values.

The consultation paper also provided the final draft of the proposed amendments to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code).

We held a public briefing on the 2 April 2019 and the briefing material and videos of the presentations are here.

We have published the submissions on our consultation below.

We have published our real-time pricing proposal consultation paper, which sets out the proposed operation of the pricing mechanism and the associated amendments to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code).

The Authority and the system operator held full-day briefing sessions (Auckland and Wellington) for interested parties on the 22 and 24 August.

We intend to publish a final real-time pricing design and the supporting Code amendments in early 2018, if we decide to proceed following this consultation.

We encourage interested parties to contact the Authority and system operator project teams to engage in appropriate discussion prior to making submissions.

The presentation slides and videos of the key presentations from the briefing can be found here.

Responses to frequently asked questions regarding the proposal can be found here.