This amendment to the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 ("Code") comes into force the day after the date which is 28 days after the date of the Gazette notice, except clauses 4(2), 4(10), 4(11), 4(16), 36, 65, 68 to 72, and 76, which come into force on 31 December 2021, and clauses 4(17), 37 to 48 and 74 which come into force on 1 March 2022.

This amendment makes a variety of improvements to the Code that the Electricity Authority has identified either in the course of its work or as a result of suggestions received through the Authority's Code amendment proposal process. The amendment mostly comprises changes to the Code that would be beneficial, but that do not (of themselves) warrant a separate Code amendment.

This amendment amends Parts 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 of the Code. The changes include:

(a) clarifying the definitions of block security constraint and station security constraint;

(b) clarifying the definition of point of connection;

(c) amending Part 9 and the definition of public conservation period to ensure only official conservation campaigns trigger the customer compensation scheme;

(d) allowing distributors to backdate a change to a price category code if the distributor and trader responsible for the ICP agree to a date and within specified timeframes;

(e) improving the process for converting secondary networks by:

(i) allowing 40 business days to consent to secondary network conversion;

(ii) setting the date at which an embedded network owner is no longer responsible for the NSP identifier; and

(iii) requiring the assignment of “Active” or “Inactive” ICP identifiers to the parent network’s NSP identifier before decommissioning an NSP.

(f) clarifying when participants “receive” a notice from the registry manager under clause 22 of Schedule 11.3;

(g) amending the definition of historical estimate and other clauses in Schedule 15.3 to ensure the most accurate historical estimate input data is used in volume information provided to the reconciliation manager and refer to the use of approved profiles;

(h) requiring the reconciliation manager to provide additional information in its reporting on the difference between electricity supplied as reported by retailers and submission information submitted by retailers;

(i) amending clause 15.8 to clarify that a retailer or direct purchaser (excluding direct consumers) must provide the reconciliation manager with a file containing monthly totals of metered, rather than billed, consumption data by individual half hourly metered ICP;

(j) clarifying the manner and the form in which final audit reports and compliance plans must be provided to the Authority; and

(k) making several other minor and technical changes to improve the Code, including removal of numerous transitional clauses from Part 17 of the Code that are no longer required.