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More standardisation of distribution tariff structures and use of system agreements

The Government proposed electricity reforms which arose from the 2009 Ministerial Review of the electricity market. Sections 42(2)(e) and (f) of the Act set out the requirements relating to increased standardisation of distribution line tariff structures and use-of-system agreements.

• Fourth consultation (MUoSA) - February 2012
• Code amendments gazetted - 28 October 2011
• Third consultation - October 2011
• Second consultation - August 2011 
• First consultation - May 2011
• Request for Information - May 2011
• Information gathering, key findings and workshop - 2010

 Consultation on model use-of-system agreements – February 2012

The Authority invites submissions on this paper by 4pm Wednesday 11 April 2012.

Details of the proposal and how to make a submission are available from the consultation page.

The consultation paper provides a summary of submissions on the draft model use-of-system agreements published in August 2011 and the Authority’s responses to those submissions.  The Authority is now seeking submissions on revised draft model use-of-system agreements (updated to reflect the More Standardisation Code Amendments, in response to submissions on the draft model use-of-system agreements and as a result of further analysis) and on a detailed programme for monitoring the uptake of the model use-of-system agreements.

The Authority intends to consider submissions and finalise the model use-of-system agreements by the end of June 2012.

 Code amendments gazetted - 28 October 2011

The Code amendments for the more standardisation initiatives were gazetted on 28 October 2011.  A copy of the Gazette Notice and Code Amendments are available on the Code Amendments 2011 page.

The Authority has published a brief overview paper of the more standardisation initiatives.

• More standardisation - overview paper

The Authority has also published and Information Paper and Summary of Submissions.

• Information paper and Summary of Submissions
• Appendix A - Final Notice of Code amendments
• Appendix B - EIEP12
• Appendix C - Standard Tariff Codes

 Consultation on clarifications to prudential proposal and proposed changes to distributor indemnity proposal - October 2011

The Authority invited submissions on this paper by 9am Tuesday 11 October 2011.

Details of the proposal are available from the consultation page.

The consultation paper contains a clarification of certain aspects of the prudential proposal set out in the August consultation paper, and also seeks submissions on a proposed change to the distributor indemnity proposal.

 Consultation on more standardisation of distribution tariff structures and use of system agreements - August 2011

The Authority invited submissions on the components of this consultation where Code amendments were proposed, (questions 5 to 23), by 5pm Thursday 8 September 2011. Submissions on other components of this consultation, (questions 1 to 4 and 24 to 36), were due by 5pm Thursday 6 October 2011.

Details of the proposal are available from the consultation page.

The consultation paper sets out further aspects of the Authority’s proposed approach to delivering more standardisation of distribution arrangements. The proposals are grouped under three issues:

• finalisation of the model use-of-system agreements;

• matters raised in the 26 May consultation paper; and

• remaining matters relating to distribution use-of-system agreements that were not raised in the 26 May consultation paper.

 Consultation on more standardisation of distribution tariff structures and use of system agreements – May 2011 

In May 2011, the project reached the stage of proposing draft Code to provide for certain aspects of distribution tariff structures and use-of-system agreements. A consultation paper including proposed draft Code was released on 26 May 2011.

The Authority held a briefing on Tuesday 7 June 2011 on more standardisation of distribution arrangements.

 Request for Information

On 4 May 2011 the Authority issued, to a number of parties, a request for information on the impact of retailers’ or distributors’ liability under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Other parties wishing to provide relevant information, were invited to provide responses to the Authority by 20 May 2011.

 Information gathering, key findings and workshop – 2010

In preparation for carrying out the policy intent of the Government’s reforms, the Electricity Commission established a Standardisation project commencing with an information-gathering stage to estimate costs and benefits of standardising distribution tariff structures and use-of-system agreements. The information gathering stage was carried out in two phases:

Information gathering

Phase 1

On 2 September 2010, an information paper was published that outlined the main findings from the information gathering project as well as the recommended next steps. Participants were invited to discuss the findings in this paper at an industry workshop held on 10 September 2010.

Phase 2

In this phase, distributors were approached with a similar discussion document as to phase 1 and again invited to respond to questions prior to one-on-one discussions. In all, face-to-face meetings were held with 28 distributors and one embedded network representative.

In addition, the project team met with nine consumer representatives to gain their input on assumptions used in the evaluation framework, and whether the recommended list of issues to be addressed under the standardisation project supported this objective.

The first phase was designed to establish the nature and scale of potential retail market outcomes arising from diversity of distribution arrangements (such as impacts on retail competition and retailer cost to serve). Accordingly, a following discussion document was published and distributed to retailers.

Retailers were invited to provide written responses to the questions contained within this discussion document. Once responses to these questions were received, the Commission sought to have one-on-one discussions with a number of retailers who were identified as the most likely to provide key information.

Workshop

The purpose of the 10 September 2010 workshop was to determine if stakeholders generally supported the way in which the Electricity Commission summarised the findings from its one-on-one stakeholder meetings, and if there was general support for the recommended next steps.

Information made available at the workshop can be found below.

This page is related to: Retail and Wholesale Market, Market Development Programme.

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