Pursuant to section 54D(3) of the Commerce Act 1986,
I state that the names of the suppliers that are consumer-owned (within the meaning of that Act) are:
Buller Electricity Limited
Electra Limited
Marlborough Lines Limited
Network Waitaki Limited
Northpower Limited
The Power Company Limited
WEL Networks Limited
Westpower Limited
In accordance with section 54D(4) of the Act, this notice is only for information purposes and has no legal effect.
Dated at Wellington this 1st day of March 2009.
SIMON POWER, Minister of Commerce.
Explanatory Note
This explanatory note is not part of the notice, but it is intended to indicate its general effect.
(a) Section 54D(3) of the Commerce Act 1986 came into force on 14 October 2008 and requires that "as soon as practicable after this subsection comes into force, the Minister must publish a notice in the Gazette stating
the names of the suppliers that are consumer-owned as at that date".
(b) Section 54G, which comes into force on 1 April 2009, provides that all electricity lines services that are supplied by a supplier that is consumer-owned are exempt from the default/customised price-quality regulation (unless an Order in Council has been made in respect of the service under section 54H).
(c) This list of consumer-owned electricity suppliers may change in the future depending on whether they meet the definition of consumer-owned pursuant to section 54D(1).
(d) Section 54D(1), which comes into force on 1 April 2009, states that a supplier is consumer-owned if it meets the following criteria:
(i) All the control rights and all the equity return rights (within the meaning of section 3 of the Electricity Industry Reform Act 1998) in the supplier are held by one or more customer trusts, community trusts, or customer co-operatives; and
(ii) the trustees of each customer trust or community trust, or the directors of each customer co-operative, as the case may be, that is referred to in paragraph (a) are elected solely by the persons who are consumers of the supplier, and at least 90% of the persons who are consumers of the supplier at
the time of the election are eligible to vote in
those elections; and
(iii) at least 90% of the persons who are consumers of the supplier as at an income distribution resolution date benefit from that income distribution; and
(iv) the supplier has fewer than 150,000 ICPs.