UTS 24 June 2008

UTS claim

Genesis Energy lodged a claim that a UTS took place on 24 June 2008.

The claim was about provisional prices for the upper North Island and claimed orderly trading on the wholesale market may have been threatened, as Genesis Energy was unaware of a grid emergency until hours after it occurred, preventing it from responding and potentially mitigating the situation.

Our investigation

On 24 June 2008, a grid emergency was declared by the system operator due to a concurrent unplanned and planned circuit outages.

The events that caused this grid emergency also caused a high spring washer pricing situation, leading to prices of up to $3,000/MWh and low prices of approximately $6/MWh.

The high spring washer event was classified as a provisional pricing situation.

Genesis Energy lodged a UTS claim, alleging it could have mitigated the situation if it had been notified in time, and helped prevent the grid emergency.

We delayed publication of final prices while the investigation was carried out.

During our investigation, we consulted with Genesis Energy, the pricing manager, the clearing manager and the system operator. We found no evidence that trading was threatened or that orderly settlement was compromised. We also found that the system operator acted within the rules when managing the emergency.

Our decision

We found that the circumstances giving rise to the UTS claim by Genesis Energy did not constitute a UTS.

Our analysis and conclusions are detailed in the following final decision paper.