Transmission Pricing Review

Details of the existing TPM can be found on the page below:

Details of the development of the TPM are available on the page below:

Introduction

The Electricity Authority (Authority) is responsible under section 16 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010 for making and administering the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code) which includes, as a schedule, the Transmission Pricing Methodology (TPM).

The Authority decided to continue the TPM Review started by the Electricity Commission, and set up the Transmission Pricing Advisory Group (TPAG) in early 2011 to work through the issues and make recommendations to the Authority. TPAG was unable to reach a consensus on key aspects of transmission pricing and, although it undertook valuable analysis, there remain substantive issues that require further consideration and consultation.

The Authority published a decision-making and economic framework consultation paper in January 2012. The Authority received submissions, invited and received cross-submissions and held meetings with interested parties during February and March 2012. A schedule of meetings and attendees is available below.

The Authority confirmed its decision-making and economic framework and published its decision and reasons paper and a summary of submissions on Tuesday, 8 May 2012.
The Authority has assessed options for the TPM against the published decision-making and economic framework. The Authority has proposed a new TPM and has published its analysis and draft TPM guidelines in an issues paper on 10October 2012 for consultation. Submissions closed on 1 March 2013 and cross submissions closed on 28 March 2013. Details of the proposal, the submissions and cross-submissions can be found on the consultation page.

Next steps

As the Authority has published an Issues Paper, the review process will follow the steps set out in Part 12, subpart 4 of the Code for developing any new TPM. These steps involve the development of guidelines and process for Transpower to follow in developing a new TPM, the development of a new TPM and the application of a new TPM. The time taken from publication of an Issues Paper to the Code amendment to confirm a new TPM will take at least one year and depends on the complexity of the proposed new TPM. Subsequent rounds of consultation may be required should submitters identify material problems with the TPM proposal, or demonstrate that there is an alternative approach that would deliver greater efficiency gains.

Transpower's annual pricing round begins around August of the year prior to the pricing year. The Authority does not expect that any changes to the TPM would be effective by 1 April 2015..

Assistance with TPM

The Authority engaged Sapere Research Group (Sapere) in 2011 for a fixed term contract to assist the Market Design team (Retail and Network Markets) with Code development and administration, including in relation to Part 12 of the Code.

The contract is non-exclusive and the Authority and Sapere have agreed arrangements for managing any conflicts or potential conflicts arising from past or concurrent work by Sapere for other parties. In particular, the Authority and Sapere have agreed that Sapere staff undertaking work for the Electricity Networks Association (ENA) will be excluded from the work undertaken for the Authority, and will not have access to files relating to that work, because of the potential for ENA work to overlap with the work that the Authority may ask for from Sapere.

Staff from Sapere are assisting the Authority with aspects of the transmission pricing methodology (TPM) review. The Authority understands that the Sapere staff working for the ENA may assist the ENA with its submission on the TPM review issues and proposal consultation paper. In addition to the existing arrangements for managing conflicts, the Authority will ensure that the ENA submission on the TPM review will be considered by the Authority without any comment or input from the Sapere staff assisting the Authority.

Overview of the TPM Review to date

WorkstreamsDates

Stage 1 consultation High level options (Electricity Commission)

This page includes a large number of related transmission pricing documents.

October 2009
Stage 2 consultation (Stage 2 options) (Electricity Commission) July 2010

Code amendment proposal (regulatory framework for transmission pricing)

February 2011

April 2011

Transmission Pricing Advisory Group (TPAG) Discussion paper

June 2011

September 2011

Issues paper October 2012 

Related Documents

TPM review information received from interested parties

TPM-review-information-from-interested-parties.pdf | pdf | 63 KB | Last Changed: 03/08/2012 3:59pm

Decision-making and economic framework for TPM - decisions and reasons

Decision-and-reasons.pdf | pdf | 84 KB | Last Changed: 07/05/2012 3:07pm

Summary of submissions

summary-submissions.pdf | pdf | 58 KB | Last Changed: 07/05/2012 3:05pm

Schedule of submitter meetings

Schedule-of-submitter-meetings.pdf | pdf | 14 KB | Last Changed: 13/04/2012 11:41am

This page is related to: Transmission, Market Development Programme.