1. Pursuant to section 172I of the Electricity Act 1992 (“Act”), I notify the amendment of the Electricity
Governance Rules 2003 (“Rules”) under section 172H of
the Act.
2. The empowering provisions for the Electricity Governance Regulations, in relation to which the
amendments to the Rules are made, are sections 172D (1) (3) and 172D (1) (4) of the Act.
3. A brief description of the nature of the amendments is
as follows:
(a) Asset owners, excluding the grid owner, are to
use reasonable endeavours to make the primary means of data transmission communications available continuously to transmit the indications and measurements required by the system operator to the grid owner’s remote terminal units (RTUs);
(b) the grid owner is to use reasonable endeavours
to continuously transmit the indications and measurements required by the system operator
from its RTUs to the system operator;
(c) asset owners and the system operator must also use reasonable endeavours to return the primary means of data transmission communications to service as soon as practicable following an outage;
(d) data communication is to be provided continually
to the system operator, through the use of primary (e.g. the grid owner’s communications system)
and backup means (when the primary means is unavailable);
(e) asset owners may provide data directly to the system operator using an alternative data communications system to be agreed with the system operator (approval not to be unreasonably withheld);
(f) asset owners must have in place primary voice communications utilising one of either the grid owner’s voice network or widely available public switched telephone network;
(g) asset owners must also have in place backup
voice arrangements may include any alternative to the primary voice system – for example, satellite phone or cellular phone. Asset owners with control rooms dealing with more than 299MW of generation capacity or load must have two forms of backup voice communications arrangements;
(h) asset owners must have in place both primary
and backup means of document communications. Facsimile is to be the primary means of document communications unless an alternative arrangement
is agreed between the system operator and asset owner; and
(i) backup arrangements for voice, document and data communications must be approved by the system operator and its approval is not to be unreasonably withheld.
4. Pursuant to section 172Z (4) of the Act, the reasons for my decision to amend the Rules are to:
(a) meet the requirement of the system operator for continual communications necessary for it to comply, and plan to comply, with its principal performance obligations;
(b) provide an appropriate balance between the
system operator’s requirements for the availability of operational communications and the practical
and economic limitations of communication assets;
(c) ensure that obligations are placed with the party best able to manage them; and
(d) clarify the nature of the obligations of each
party (system operator, asset owners, and the
grid owner) regarding the provision of operational communications.
5. These rules come into force on 23 November 2006.
6. Copies of the Rules may be inspected free of charge or purchased from the Electricity Commission, Level Seven, ASB Bank Tower, 2 Hunter Street, Wellington. The Rules can also be viewed on the Electricity Commission web site:
http://www.electricitycommission.govt.nz/rulesandregs/rules
Dated at Wellington this 12th day of October 2006.
DAVID PARKER, Minister of Energy.