Under Part 4 of the Commerce Act 1986 (the Act) suppliers of electricity lines services are subject to default/customised price-quality regulation. However, electricity distribution businesses (EDBs) that meet the 'consumer-owned' criteria set out in s 54D of the Act are considered to be exempt from this type of regulation.
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List of consumer-owned EDBs |
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| Based on the Commission's assessment of the statutory declarations and deeds of the Trust's provided the following EDBs are exempt from price-quality regulation: | |
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The statutory declaration submitted remains valid from 1 April 2010 until such time as the Commission is notified that a consumer-owned EDBs status has changed. The Deed of Trust provided will also continue to be considered by the Commission as current unless we are notified of any amendment to the Deed.
How consumer-owned status can be lost
Consumer-owned EDB status can be lost and default/customised price-quality regulation can be applied to a consumer-owned EDB where:
- it notifies the Commission within 10 working days that it has ceased to be consumer-owned; or
- the Commission on its own initiative (or a third party) becomes aware of a change in an EDB's status;or
- its consumers petition the Commission to make a recommendation to the Minister that a recommendation be made to the Governor-General that a Order in Council apply price-quality regulation to the EDB.
Should a consumer-owned EDB lose its status the Commission will amend the list of consumer-owned EDBs on this website.
Reporting requirements on consumer-owned EDBs
While consumer-owned status exempts EDBs from price-quality regulation certain requirements under the Act are in place which consumer-owned EDBs must adhere too. These requirements include:
- information disclosure regulation under subpart 9 of Part 4 of the Act. (Further information about the information disclosure requirements is available on this website at http://www.comcom.govt.nz/electricity-information-disclosure/.
- providing a copy of an amended trust deed, with the amendments noted as soon as practicable to the Commission in the situation where a Trust of a consumer-owned EDB amends its trust deed at a future date; and
- that the ward boundaries of ward based consumer-owned EDBs be reviewed no later than five years after 1 January 2011 and, after that, at intervals of no more than five years, in consultation with all consumers of the supplier.
If a consumer-owned EDB has difficulty meeting any of these requirements they should contact the Commission.
Statutory declaration in support of consumer-owned status
Should an EDB, other than one of the 12 above, consider that it is consumer-owned that EDB must provide to the Commission a signed copy of the Statutory Declaration that a Supplier is Consumer-owned together with a complete copy of its current trust deed of the Trust.
The Commission will assess the statutory declaration and deed of the Trust and if in its view the EDB meets the consumer-owned criteria the Commission will notify the EDB of its status and amend its record of consumer-owned EDBs on its website.
A copy of the valid standard form statutory declaration for customer/community trusts only is available at the Supporting Documents below. The Commission is not aware of any EDBs that are customer cooperatives, as defined under s 54D(2) and accordingly, the statutory declaration has been drafted for the purpose of customer/community trusts only. Should the Commission become aware of a customer cooperative, an appropriate statutory declaration will be provided.
