Dr Hamill’s presentation provided ETNZ trustees with an overview of regulation under Part 4 of the Commerce Act, in particular focusing on information disclosure requirements for electricity distribution businesses.
Information disclosure is a form of what’s called ‘light-handed’ regulation, the purpose of which is to ensure that sufficient information is available to assess whether the outcomes sought under Part 4 of the Commerce Act will be achieved.
One of the benefits of the information disclosure regime is that better and more consistent information about the performance of regulated services will be available to owners. This will include comparative information with other suppliers in New Zealand. This should help owners in their efforts to improve the performance (including cost efficiency) of the businesses they invest in.
During the presentation, some trustees expressed some concern about the cost and new complexity of the new requirements. Dr Hamill acknowledged that it was inevitable that there would be additional costs associated with setting up systems to comply with the new disclosure requirements, but that the cost of disclosing should reduce it becomes part of normal business.
Dr Hamill also indicated that the Commission is interested in stakeholders’ views as to what areas of performance the Commission should focus its analysis on to better promote an improved understanding of performance of suppliers.
“It was a great opportunity to be able to meet trustees face to face,” Dr Hamill said after the session. “As shareholders in businesses that supply regulated services trustees have a very important role in effective outcomes for the long term benefit of consumers.”
Dr Hamill’s presentation also outlined some of the key observations from the Commission’s Electricity Distributors Performance from 2008 to 2011 report, and answered a number of pre-set questions provided by ETNZ prior to the session. Read or download Dr Hamill’s presentation – ETNZ Presentation 9 May 2013 (PDF).
