1. Pursuant to section 172I of the Electricity Act 1992 ("Act"), I notify the amendment of the Electricity Governance Rules 2003 ("Rules") under section 172H of
the Act.
2. The empowering provisions for the Electricity Governance Regulations in relation to which the amendments to the Rules are made are sections 172D(1)(4)-(6), 172D(1)(28)-(31), 172J(1)(a), 172J(1)(aa), 172J(1)(b), 172J(1)(g) and 172KA of the Act.
3. A brief description of the nature of the amendments are as follows:
(a) The addition of a new Schedule F1 to Section II
of Part F of the Rules to add the categories of designated transmission customers for the purposes of Rule 2 of Section II of Part F;
(b) the addition of a new Schedule F2 to Section II of Part F of the Rules, setting out the Benchmark Agreement for the purposes of Rule 4 of Section II of Part F;
(c) amendments to Sections I, II, III and IV of Part F of the Rules associated with the Benchmark Agreement;
(d) the addition of a new Section VI to Part F of the Rules to provide for rules relating to interconnection asset services;
(e) the addition of a new Section VII to Part F of the Rules to establish rules to provide for the making of an Outage Protocol; and
(f) related amendments to Part A of the Rules to add new definitions.
4. Some of the amendments are made in reliance on section 172F(3) of the Act.
5. Pursuant to section 172Z(4) of the Act, the reasons for my decision to amend the Rules are that:
(a) Rules 2 and 4 of Section II of Part F of the Rules require the Electricity Commission to make recommendations to me about new schedules to Section II of Part F:
(i) to cover the categories of designated transmission customers required to enter into transmission agreements with Transpower; and
(ii) to include the Benchmark Agreement in the Rules;
(b) the Electricity Commission has determined that the categories of designated transmission customers and the Benchmark Agreement give effect to the matters provided for in Rules 2 and 4 of Section II of Part F of the Rules, respectively;
(c) the changes to Sections I, II, III and IV of Part F
of the Rules are related to the Benchmark Agreement, and give effect to the proposals in the Benchmark Agreement;
(d) the new Section VI of Part F provides for rules
for interconnection services as it is not possible to provide for this in the Benchmark Agreement, due
to the common good nature of interconnection services;
(e) the new Section VII of Part F requires the making
of an Outage Protocol, which is required for
the purposes of the Benchmark Agreement and the interconnection rules in new Section VI; and
(f) the new definitions in Part A are incidental to the above amendments.
6. These Rules come into force as follows:
(a) Rules 5.5 to 5.9 of Section II of Part F and Rules 5 to 8 of Section VI of Part F come into force on
1 April 2008; and
(b) the rest of the amendments come into force on
28 June 2007.
7. Copies of the Rules may be inspected free of charge
or purchased from the Electricity Commission, Level 7, ASB Bank Tower, 2 Hunter Street, Wellington.
The Rules can also be viewed on the Electricity Commission's website
http://www.electricitycommission.govt.nz/Rulesandregs/Rules
Dated at Wellington this 23rd day of May 2007.
DAVID PARKER, Minister of Energy.