Consultation on first steps in improving outage coordination

We are seeking feedback on proposed amendments to the Electricity Industry Participation Code to improve outage coordination. This will remove ambiguity and better reflect current practice, minimising the risk of disruption to consumers’ electricity supply.

During winter 2024, generators rescheduled maintenance outages in response to the low hydro storage situation. It is possible that some of these outages will be rescheduled to early 2025 to enable generation to be available through the following autumn and winter.

Our proposed Code amendments aim to strengthen outage coordination obligations by:

• requiring asset owners to disclose all outages of their assets
• clarifying that asset owners are required to disclose and update their outages as soon as possible
• clarifying that existing outage coordination obligations apply for capacity reductions and unplanned outages, in addition to planned outages (where appropriate)
• requiring that outages are disclosed in a manner and form reasonably specified by the system operator.

Please read the consultation paper and submit your feedback by 5pm on Friday ​8 November 2024​ to OperationsConsult@ea.govt.nz

These are first steps to improve outage coordination which we aim to implement quickly, in time for January 2025. Following implementation of these changes, we will review their impact on outage coordination and investigate any further issues that may need to be addressed. If further changes are needed, these will be consulted on later in 2025.

View consultation