Press Release – Electricity Authority The New Zealand Electricity Authority has a services contract opportunity for providers of market making services to support the New Zealand wholesale electricity futures market. The Authority reviewed market making arrangements in the New Zealand futures …
The New Zealand Electricity Authority has a services contract opportunity for providers of market making services to support the New Zealand wholesale electricity futures market.
The Authority reviewed market making arrangements in the New Zealand futures market throughout 2020 and decided to procure market making services on a commercial basis.
The Authority is inviting organisations interested in providing market making services to give feedback on its proposed commercial market making scheme through a Request For Information (RFI), released today.
Photo: RNZ / Russell Palmer
The Electricity Authority has confirmed a preliminary mid-year decision that an undesirable trading situation (UTS) occurred for three weeks in December 2019, when Meridian and Contact spilled excess water from South Island hydro dams causing a spike in wholesale prices.
A group of small electricity retailers and users complained about the spike in prices, which they had to pass on to consumers.
The authority s chief executive James Stevenson-Wallace said the market had acted in an unusual and uncompetitive way. We experienced an extreme weather event in the South Island with severe rainfall and lake levels over and above the maximum. Generators were faced with record-level inflows, resource and operational constraints. At the same time North Island generation was aiming to conserve fuel ahead of an impending gas and HVDC (Cook Strait cable) outage.
Energy Minister Megan Woods to consider regulator s powers amid calls for structural reform of electricity sector
23 Dec, 2020 04:30 AM
4 minutes to read
The Benmore Power Station, one of a string of South Island generation assets owned by Meridian Energy. Photo / Richard Robinson Energy Minister Megan Woods will examine whether the electricity regulator needs new tools after a major investigation found a lack of competition in the wholesale electricity market led to prices being higher than they should have been in late 2019.
Although the report deliberately stopped short of blaming any company, the complainants that led to the investigation said the regulator had effectively pointed the finger at Meridian Energy, which spilled more water than necessary at Benmore, raising prices for the entire market.