Development of model contracts for domestic consumers

The Metering and Reconciliation Information Agreement (MARIA) Governance Board initially assumed responsibility for developing model retail contracts in response to policy objectives and industry demand for such arrangements. It established the Model Retail Contract Project Team (MRCPT) in July 2003 to progress the work. The MRCPT ceased work on the model agreements in May 2004 and the MARIA Governance Board forwarded the draft contracts to the Electricity Commission to progress.

2009 review

In late 2009, the Electricity Commission considered the issues and drivers behind model domestic retail contracts, and the options for meeting its objectives in this area. It developed a set of reasonable consumer expectations for domestic electricity customers, and identified its preferred approach to meeting these. The Electricity Commission also prepared a draft set of contracting guidelines and suggested minimum terms and conditions for the purposes of consultation, consistent with its preferred approach.

2008 developments

Between 2005 and 2008, the Electricity Commission continued to develop the draft contracts to reflect submissions received at that time and in subsequent consultations and forums. It also progressed a number of other enhancements in the model contracts including:

developing a set of contract guidelines;
incorporating arrangements relating to purchases of small surpluses from distributed generation;
proposals to give effect to the GPS requirement for transparency of charge components on invoices;
wording to clarify responsibilities in relation to customer service lines; and
considering alignment issues with other supply chain contracts, particularly Use of Systems Agreements (distribution) and Benchmark Agreements (transmission).

Proposed changes to the Model Domestic Contracts were published in April 2008.

Marked up August 2005 contracts

Marked up versions of the model contracts were then made available to indicate changes since the last consultation:

Model Domestic Contract for Delivered Electricity (Interposed) marked up version
Model Domestic Contract for Delivery Only (marked up version)
Model Domestic Contract for Electricity Only (marked up)

April 2005 Workshop on model contracts for domestic consumers

Papers from the workshop:

Minutes
Presentations

A draft domestic contract for delivered electricity document was released prior to the workshop for discussion at workshop.

February 2005 documents

A full package of Model Domestic Contracts (MDC) was published in February 2005. This included:

Domestic Consumer Contracts and Distributed Generation: Guidelines and Model Contracts (all documents combined – excepted marked up versions)

The February 2005 document is available below in its separate parts of follows:

2004 consultation

The Electricity Commission issued the draft contracts in September 2004 for consultation and received a number of submissions from retailers, distributors, consumer representatives and what is now the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commission (EGCC).

The Electricity Commission re-drafted the contracts and then held a workshop in April 2005 to cover the main issues arising from submissions.

Other related issues

Forum on electricity consumer issues 30 March 2005

Meeting notes

Distributed Generation

The expectations in respect of adoption of the distributed generation terms was published in February 2006. See paragraph 23 of the Domestic Consumer Contracts and Distributed Generation document.

Transparency of Line and Energy charges

In November 2007, the Electricity Commission considered changing the way the requirement for transparency of line and energy charges on consumers’ invoices is set out in the model domestic contract:

Transparency of line and energy charges

In late 2009, the Electricity Commission further engaged with stakeholders on this issue:

Summary of Submissions and Commission response

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