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), 172D(1)(5), 172D(1)(28), 172J(1)(aa), 172J(1)(g) and 172KA of the Act.
3. A brief description of the nature of the amendments is as follows:
(a) Amendments to the availability and reliability service measures and levels that apply to Transpower under Schedule 5 and Part C of the benchmark agreement, as set out in Schedule F2 of Part F of the Rules. These service measures and levels will now apply at the point of service level. Transpower will also be required to provide estimates of the expected performance for all connection assets up to the point of connection on request;
(b) amendments to the benchmark agreement and Section II of Part F of the Rules, including the insertion of
a new Schedule F2A in Part F, to provide for a transition period during which Transpower will not have to separately report on the performance of connection and interconnection assets;
(c) minor amendments to terminology and definitions in the benchmark agreement and Part A of the Rules;
(d) amendments to Section II of Part F of the Rules
to implement the revised service measures and transitional requirements; and
(e) amendments to Section VI of Part F of the Rules to provide transitional requirements for reporting on the performance of interconnection assets.
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) the amendments create achievable benchmark agreement reporting standards and reflect a fair
and reasonable balance between the requirements
of designated transmission customers and the legitimate interests of Transpower;
(b) a transitional period of 12 months will provide Transpower adequate time to develop separate measures for connection and interconnection assets and related reporting systems; and
(c) the amendments also improve the clarity and certainty of the Rules.
6. These rules come into force on 25 October 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 24th day of September 2007.
DAVID PARKER, Minister of Energy.