Source: Electricity Authority
The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (the Authority) is introducing mandatory retailer reporting of domestic and small business customer data to increase transparency and accountability in New Zealand’s retail electricity market. Towards the end of 2025 the Authority will begin publishing aggregated retail data and insights on its website.
Authority General Manager Retail and Consumer Andrew Millar says increased retail reporting will enable the Authority to protect consumers’ interests, make proactive regulatory changes that support their needs, and hold the industry to account to ensure vulnerable customers are protected and promote competition.
“As we build a comprehensive and reliable data set over time, we’ll be able to identify and communicate trends and issues to help inform policy decisions, and share these insights with industry, investors and consumers,” says Millar.
“Improved oversight of retail plans and prices will enable us to assess the barriers that consumers face, promote retail competition and shine a light on retailer performance.”
Importantly, retailers will be required to provide information about medically dependent and prepay consumers and disconnections to enable robust compliance monitoring of the new mandatory Consumer Care Obligations.
“We are putting consumers at the forefront of our decisions to protect their interests, increase their choices, and give people greater control over their electricity use and costs,” Millar said.
The Authority is providing retailers with a five-month implementation period for the new reporting requirement, to enable them to make any necessary operational changes. As the Authority’s need for retail market information and data continues to increase, this more streamlined, automated process will reduce long-term regulatory burden. Retailers with fewer than 1000 domestic and small business customer connections are excused from some of the new requirements.
When developing its approach, the Authority confirmed that the long-term benefits for consumers will outweigh any costs. The Authority will work with retailers to respond to questions and implementation challenges if they arise, as they prepare to provide their first report in August 2025.
The Authority has powerful information gathering powers under the Electricity Industry Act 2010 and in the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (the Code). This new requirement, implemented under clause 2.16 of the Code, supports the Authority’s statutory function to monitor the industry and electricity markets, and make data, information and tools available to help improve participation in and understanding of the electricity markets by consumers and industry participants.
