Compliance, monitoring and enforcement
Strong compliance helps protect consumers, supports fair competition and maintains confidence in New Zealand's electricity system.
On this page —
Our approach to compliance
We support compliance through education, monitoring, engagement and enforcement. Our goal is to promote confidence in New Zealand's electricity system by supporting high levels of compliance and responding appropriately when non-compliance occurs.
We take a risk-based and proportionate approach to compliance. We focus our efforts on the areas with the greatest potential impact on consumers, market competition and system security. This helps us achieve consistent, fair and timely outcomes.
We work with electricity industry participants and industry bodies to support understanding of obligations, identify emerging risks and improve compliance outcomes across the sector. We run webinars and forums and publish resources to help participants understand their obligations, strengthen compliance and learn from experience across the sector.
Each year, we identify focus areas for compliance and monitoring based on potential risk and impact. Participants should consider whether their systems, controls and governance arrangements remain fit for purpose and support strong compliance outcomes.
Our annual Compliance and Enforcement Report outlines our current compliance priorities and monitoring areas.
Compliance focus areas for 2026/27
The following six areas will receive increased regulatory attention during 2026/27 because they have the greatest potential impact on consumers, market competition and system security:
- non-discrimination obligations
- Consumer Care Obligations
- prudential and settlement obligations
- protection setting requirements
- intermittent generation forecasting
- limitations on revised offers within gate closure.
Monitoring priorities for 2026/27
The following eight areas will continue to receive proactive monitoring. These areas present a higher risk because non-compliance can be difficult to detect and the potential harm is significant:
- trading conduct in the wholesale electricity market
- reasonable and prudent System Operator performance
- automatic under-frequency load shedding readiness
- wholesale market information disclosure
- risk management contract information disclosure
- grid emergency planning
- restrictions on materially large contracts
- revisions of submission information for reconciliation.
How we monitor and enforce compliance
We monitor compliance with the Electricity Industry Act 2010, associated regulations and the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010.
We aim to support and encourage voluntary compliance through education, engagement and established compliance processes.
The Authority assesses every notification of an alleged breach to determine the appropriate response, including whether to take no further action. This includes considering information provided by the participant, the circumstances and impact of the alleged breach, any remedial action taken, and the actual or potential risk of consumer, market or system harm. Where appropriate, we may take more formal enforcement action, such as opening an investigation or referring a case to the Rulings Panel.
We focus enforcement activity on matters involving greater potential harm, repeat non-compliance or broader risks to consumers, the market or power system.
We also have powers to require information from electricity industry participants as part of our monitoring, investigation and enforcement functions. This may include requesting information, conducting interviews and exercising other statutory information-gathering powers where necessary.
Key documents
These documents explain our approach to compliance, monitoring, enforcement and prosecution. We encourage participants to review the documents relevant to their activities and assess whether their systems, processes, controls and governance arrangements remain fit for purpose and support compliance with their obligations.
Guidance and resources
We provide resources to help participants understand their obligations and strengthen compliance arrangements:
If you have any questions, contact us at compliance@ea.govt.nz
Breaches
Participants are legally obliged to comply with the Act, Regulations, and the Code. Failure to comply may result in enforcement action.
Industry participants have an obligation to report all breaches of the Code to us.