Upcoming consultation on minor TPM amendments

As signalled in late November, the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko identified a technical issue in the new Transmission Pricing Methodology (TPM). The issue relates to an adjustment provision in the TPM that sets transmission charges for new customers. In particular, the issue is with the calculation of benefit-based charges for allocating the costs of low-value grid investments, for new entrants greater than 10MW who are joining certain regional customer groups.

If not corrected, this issue could cause some new entrants to be subject to higher benefit-based charges that are not proportional to the benefits they receive from the relevant investments.

We have worked in conjunction with Transpower to develop a proposed amendment to correct this issue. The proposed amendment to the TPM would impose a cap on the new entrant’s charges based on current benefit-based charges as paid for by an appropriately comparable customer.

We will be releasing a consultation paper on 9 January 2024 with full details of this proposed amendment. The consultation will run for two weeks until 23 January 2024.

We are committed to ensuring the TPM works to deliver long-term benefits for transmission customers and consumers. This means that over time we may need to make minor technical improvements. We value stakeholder feedback and welcome submissions after 9 January 2024.

About the TPM