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)(4), 172D(1)(5) and 172KA(1) of the Act.
3. In brief, the amendments are to:
(a) amend the definition of “interconnection circuit branch” in Part A of the Rules;
(b) add the Connection Code to the Rules as Schedule 8 of the benchmark agreement, which itself is Schedule F2 of Section II of Part F;
(c) amend Rules 3, 4, 8 (Rule 8 comes into force on
1 April 2008) and 10.9 of Section VI of Part F;
(d) add the interconnection service measures to the Rules as Schedule F6 of Section VI of Part F; and
(e) add the Outage Protocol to the Rules as Schedule F7 of Section VII of Part F.
4. Pursuant to section 172Z(4) of the Act, the reasons for my decision to amend the Rules are that:
(a) the amendment to the definition of “interconnection circuit branch” in Part A of the Rules will ensure that it includes circuits where only some of the assets in the circuit are interconnection assets;
(b) the Connection Code sets out the default 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. The principle embodied in the development of the code, that
it should reflect a balance between the needs of Transpower and those of grid customers, should result in a more balanced code that reduces technical barriers to entry for new connections;
(c) the amendments to Rules 3, 4, 8 and 10.9 of Section VI of Part F of the Rules 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) the information and diagrams in the interconnection service measures together set the capacity service measures and the related service levels for the different elements of the interconnected transmission grid, and specifies its 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, or it undertakes a net benefit assessment before deciding to permanently decommission interconnection assets; and
(e) the Outage Protocol facilitates Transpower’s consideration of other parties’ interests when Transpower is planning to temporarily withdraw assets or change the configuration of its assets. This consideration is likely to result in more efficient outcomes and is fairer to market participants, who rely on the use of interconnection services.
5. The amendments to Rule 8 of Section VI of Part F come into force on 1 April 2008. The rest of these amendments come into force on 17 January 2008.
6. Copies of the Rules may be inspected free of charge or purchased from the Electricity Commission, Level 7, ASB Bank Tower, 2 Hunter Street, Wellington. The Rules can also be viewed on the Electricity Commission’s website
http://www.electricitycommission.govt.nz/rulesandregs/
rules
Dated at Wellington this 18th day of December 2007.
DAVID PARKER, Minister of Energy.