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Scarcity pricing, stress testing & customer compensation

Scarcity pricing, stress testing, and customer compensation are terms used to describe arrangements in the wholesale market to reduce the chance of forced power cuts and increasing incentives for wholesale market participants to make prudent electricity purchasing arrangements, invest in greater levels of voluntary demand response, and build more generation.

Stress testing implementation and draft tests

The Authority is moving to implement a stress testing regime from mid-2012, with relevant participants being required to provide an initial set of disclosure statements to the registrar by late June.

To facilitate the smooth introduction of the regime, the Authority has produced a draft set of stress tests.  The Authority encourages relevant participants to use these to “road test” their internal processes for applying the stress tests.  The Authority will also be able to use any feedback received to make refinements where necessary.

For details on the implementation of the regime and the draft test documents, see the Stress testing regime page.  

Consultation on stress testing

A consultation paper on refinements to the stress testing regime was published on 11 October 2011.  Consultation closed on 19 October 2011 and 16 submissions were received and published.

The Authority gazetted amendments to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code) to introduce a stress testing regime on 3 November 2011.

Second consultation on scarcity pricing

A consultation paper on the scarcity pricing design was published on 29 March 2011.  Consultation closed on 29 April 2011 and 19 submissions were received, 18 of which were published.

Some correspondence has taken place between Authority staff and submitters to clarify issues raised in submissions.  This correspondence has been published below.

A second consultation paper containing draft Code amendments, including amendments to introduce a stress testing regime, was published on 26 July 2011. Consultation closed on 26 August 2011 and 18 submissions were received and published.

On 28 October 2011, the Authority gazetted amendments to the Code to provide for scarcity pricing when an electricity supply emergency causes forced power cuts (called emergency load shedding) throughout one or both islands.

Consultation on customer compensation

A consultation paper was published on 9 October 2009.  Nineteen submissions were received. 

A further consultation on customer compensation was published on 14 December 2010. Submissions closed on Thursday 13 January 2010 and twelve submissions were received by the closing date. These have been published along with a summary of submissions document.

The Authority considered all submissions received and provided its response in the paper Customer Compensation Scheme: Response to Submissions – December/January 2011 consultation. This can also be found on the submissions page.

First consultation on scarcity pricing

A consultation paper on the scarcity pricing design was published on 29 March 2011.  Consultation closed on 29 April 2011 and 19 submissions were received, 18 of which were published.

Some correspondence has taken place between Authority staff and submitters to clarify issues raised in submissions.  This correspondence has been published below.

A second consultation paper containing draft Code amendments was published on 26 July 2011. Consultation closed on 26 August 2011 and 18 submissions were received and published.

This page is related to: Priority Projects.

Back to top Last updated on 24 February 2012