1. This notice of a recommendation and assessment concerning the Electricity Governance Rules 2003 (“Rules”), Rule Amendment Proposal No. 119, is issued by the Electricity Commission (“Commission”), pursuant to section 172E(2)(c) of the Electricity Act 1992 (“Act”).
2. The Act provides that, no later than 10 working days after making a recommendation to the Minister of Energy concerning the Rules, the Commission must publicise the recommendation and the assessment completed under section 172F of the Act.
Recommendations
3. On 14 December 2007, the Commission recommended that:
(a) the definition of “interconnection circuit branch” in Part A of the Rules be amended;
(b) the Connection Code be added to the Rules as a new Schedule 8 of the benchmark agreement, which itself is Schedule F2 of Section II of Part F;
(c) Rules 3, 4, 8 (Rule 8 comes into force on 1 April 2008) and 10.9 of Section VI of Part F be amended;
(d) the interconnection service measures be added to the Rules as a new Schedule F6 of Section VI of Part F; and
(e) the Outage Protocol be added to the Rules as a new Schedule F7 of Section VII of Part F.
Recommended Amendments to the Rules
4. The recommended amendments to the Rules were:
(a) to amend the definition of “interconnection circuit branch” in Part A of the Rules to provide that it includes circuits where only some of the assets in an interconnection circuit branch are interconnection assets;
(b) to insert the Connection Code as a schedule to the benchmark agreement. The Connection Code sets out the technical requirements and standards that designated transmission customers must meet in order to be connected to the grid and with which Transpower New Zealand Limited (in its capacity as grid owner) (“Transpower”) must also comply. This completes the benchmark agreement and allows it to operate as a default contract for transmission connection asset services from 1 April 2008;
(c) to amend Rules 3, 4, 8 (Rule 8 comes into force on
1 April 2008) and 10.9 of Section VI of Part F to provide an exception from the requirements of
Rule 3 of that section for certain changes to interconnection assets and to the configuration of the grid that occur prior to 1 April 2008, and for these changes to be reflected in the obligations that apply to Transpower under the Interconnection Rules;
(d) to insert the capacity service measures and levels for interconnection assets as a new schedule to Section VI of Part F of the Rules. The new schedule comprises a series of information documents and diagrams prepared by Transpower that relate to
the capacity of the different elements of the interconnected grid, and diagrams that show its configuration. This information and the diagrams together set the capacity service measures and the related service levels for interconnection assets, and specify the grid configuration. Transpower will be required to maintain its interconnection assets at these capacity levels and in the configuration shown, unless it follows the Outage Protocol to temporarily remove them from service, undertakes a net benefit assessment before deciding to permanently decommission interconnection assets, or the other exceptions in Rule 4 of Section VI of Part F apply; and
(e) to insert the Outage Protocol as a new schedule to Section VII of Part F of the Rules. The Outage Protocol specifies the circumstances in which Transpower may temporarily remove any assets, forming part of the grid, from service or reduce the capacity of assets that it would otherwise have to provide under the benchmark agreement and the interconnection rules. It also provides for procedures and policies for Transpower to plan for and carry out outages, and the management of unplanned outages on the grid.
5. A copy of the Commission’s recommendation and assessment is available, at no cost, on the Commission’s website at
http://www.electricitycommission.govt.nz/rulesandregs/
recommend
Dated at Wellington this 14th day of December 2007.
For and on behalf of the Electricity Commission:
DAVID CAYGILL, Chair.