1. Under section 38 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010 (“Act”), and having complied with section 39 of that Act, the Electricity Authority (“Authority”) gives notice of making the Electricity Industry Participation Code (Connection Pricing Requirements) Amendment 2025 (“amendment”).

2. This amendment comes into force on 1 April 2026.

3. The amendment inserts a new Part 6B into the Code to implement requirements on distributors to comply with mandatory connection pricing methodologies, information requirements and other requirements for load connections. The requirements consist of:

• Enhancement cost allocation requirements. This requires connection charges to be determined with reference to a “relevant minimum scheme”, with enhancement costs (if any) allocated to the party that seeks the enhancement.
• Capacity costing requirements. This requires that any upstream costs allocated to access seekers, use published rates to allocate costs as capacity headroom is consumed (not as it is built).
• Pioneer scheme requirements. This requires rebates to be paid to the “pioneers” that fund network extensions as subsequent parties connect.
• Connection charge reconciliation requirement. This requires distributors to prepare and provide a standardised breakdown of connection charges into incremental and network cost components.

4. The amendment is secondary legislation for the purpose of the Legislation Act 2019 and is administered by the Authority.

5. A copy of the amendment and the Code is available on the Authority’s website http://www.ea.govt.nz/code-and-compliance/the-code/.

6. A copy of the amendment and the Code may also be inspected free of charge or purchased from the Authority, Level 7, Aon Centre, 1 Willis Street, Wellington.

Dated at Wellington this 4th day of September 2025.

ANNA KOMINIK, Chair, Electricity Authority.