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. 99 (Orion New Zealand Limited)) Exemption Notice 2009.
(2) This notice comes into force on the date on which it is notified in the New Zealand Gazette.
2. Exemption—Orion New Zealand Limited (“Orion”) is exempted from compliance, on the existing interconnection point between the Orion local network (APS0111) and the WestPower local network (OTI0111), with the following:
(a) Rule 3.7 of Part D of the Electricity Governance Rules 2003 (“Rules”);
(b) Rules 4.3.2 and 19 of Part J of the Rules; and
(c) All other obligations in respect of distributors’ network supply points within the Rules.
3. Terms and conditions—This exemption is granted on the following conditions:
(a) Orion must notify the Commission in writing, within 20 business days, if the purpose of the existing interconnection point changes, or the frequency or volume of usage significantly increases while the exemption is in force; and
(b) It will expire on 4 February 2014.
4. Reasons for granting the exemption—The reasons for granting this exemption are:
(a) Without an exemption, Orion:
(i) would incur significant unreasonable expenditure and complexity in fitting metering and communication equipment to its network for low consumption volumes;
(ii) would incur unreasonable expenditure in becoming a certified reconciliation participant;
(iii) would incur unreasonable expenditure by submitting submission information for each reconciliation period;
(iv) may need to re-assess the viability of having the interconnection point as a back up;
(b) The interconnection point is rarely used;
(c) Although the granting of the exemption will financially impact the customer on OTI0111, this customer endorsed the application for an exemption; and
(d) There will be little or no impact on other participants and service providers and it will not affect any other rules, as the transfer of volumes between the Orion and WestPower networks will balance out.
Dated at Wellington this 3rd day of February 2009.
For and on behalf of the Electricity Commission:
DAVID CAYGILL, Chair.