Pursuant to Regulation 194(2) of the Electricity
Governance Regulations 2003, the Electricity Commission (“Commission”) gives the following notice.
N o t i c e
1. Title and commencement—(1) This notice is the Electricity Governance Regulations (Exemption No. 61 (Transpower New Zealand Limited)) Exemption Notice 2008.
(2) This notice comes into force on the day after the date it is notified in the New Zealand Gazette.
2. Exemption—Transpower New Zealand Limited, in
its capacity as system operator (“system operator”), is exempted from compliance with the obligation to submit
a draft policy statement, contained in Rule 10.1 of Section
II of Part C of the Electricity Governance Rules 2003 (Rules).
3. Terms and conditions—This exemption is granted on the following conditions:
(a) that it only applies to the draft policy statement required to be submitted by the system operator no later than 31 March 2008; and
(b) that it will expire on 30 September 2008.
4. Reasons for granting the exemption—The reasons for granting this exemption are:
(a) it would be unreasonable to require the system operator to submit a draft policy statement when no significant or substantial changes have been identified during the system operator’s pre-consultation;
(b) the policy statement review process prescribed by Rules 10 and 11 of Section II of Part C of the Rules is time and resource intensive for all affected parties and is not considered the best utilisation of resources if no substantive issues require effecting a new policy statement;
(c) the exemption does not preclude the application of Rule 12.2 of Section II of Part C, which allows variations to the policy statement to be proposed to the board by any participant at any time; and
(d) the outcome of the Commission’s review in March 2007 of the policy statement review process showed a reasonable measure of industry support for a
two-yearly policy statement review cycle. However, the annual review was retained largely at the request of the system operator, and noting the ability of
the system operator to seek an exemption in circumstances such as these.
Dated at Wellington this 20th day of March 2008.
For and on behalf of the Electricity Commission:
DAVID CAYGILL, Chair.