1. Pursuant to section 38(3)(b) of the Electricity Industry Act 2010 ("Act"), the Electricity Authority ("Authority") gives notice of the making of the Electricity Industry Participation (Temporary Grid Reconfiguration) Code Amendment 2013.
2. The amendment is made urgently under section 40 of the Act. The amendment comes into force on 15 March 2013.
3. The amendment enables Transpower to temporarily remove interconnection assets from service or temporarily reconfigure the grid in specified circumstances where doing so results in a net benefit,
to improve the operation of the electricity system.
4. The Authority considers that it is desirable to make the amendment urgently because:
(a) due to ongoing dry conditions in the lower South Island, inflows into the Waiau catchment area are extremely low and there is a risk of reaching the
low operating range of Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri. When the absolute minimum of the low operating range of those lakes is reached, the output of Manapouri hydroelectric power station is restricted to inflows only. Under a continued low inflow scenario, the absolute minimum would be reached by about 15 April 2013;
(b) a temporary grid reconfiguration could provide a significant benefit by enabling increased transmission of electricity into Southland, which is needed to meet the daily Southland load in the conditions described above;
(c) without the ability to temporarily reconfigure the grid, the system operator and Southland generators have less ability to manage the dry situation, which could expose consumers to rolling outages; and
(d) a delay in making an amendment to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 ("Code") will increase the likelihood that the benefits of a removal or reconfiguration of interconnection assets will not be realised.
5. Copies of the amendment and the Code are available on the Electricity Authority’s website at
www.ea.govt.nz/act-code-regs/code-regs/
6. Copies of the amendment and the Code may also be inspected free of charge or purchased from the Electricity Authority, Level 7, ASB Bank Tower, 2 Hunter Street, Wellington.
Dated at Wellington this 13th day of March 2013.
DR THOMAS BRENT LAYTON, Chairperson, Electricity Authority.