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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Electricity Industry Act 2010

Separation of distribution from certain generation - Separation of distribution from certain generation - Interpretation of Part

73: Ownership separation

You could also call this:

“This law stops electricity delivery companies from also making too much electricity”

When you are involved with a company that distributes electricity, you are not allowed to also be involved with companies that generate electricity if those companies can make more than 250 megawatts of power and send it directly to the national grid. This rule helps keep the electricity industry fair.

It’s important to know that if a power plant sends its electricity to a local distribution network instead of the national grid, it doesn’t count towards this 250 megawatt limit.

There are two special terms you should understand:

“Nameplate” means how much power a generator can make all the time under normal conditions. This is measured in megawatts using a special international standard.

“Total capacity” means all the power a company can generate in a year, adding up the nameplates of all its power plants.

These rules help make sure that companies don’t have too much control over both making and delivering electricity.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2634418.

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72: Purpose of this Part, or

"This part explains why you can't own both power plants and power lines"

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"This rule about what 'involved in' means was taken out of the law"

Part 3 Separation of distribution from certain generation
Separation of distribution from certain generation: Interpretation of Part

73Ownership separation

  1. A person who is involved in a distributor must not be involved in 1 or more generators that have a total capacity of more than 250 MW that is generated by 1 or more generating plants that are directly connected to the national grid.

  2. To avoid doubt, generation connected to a distribution network is not directly connected to the national grid.

  3. In this section,—

    nameplate means the full-load continuous rating of a generating plant under specific conditions as designated by its manufacturer and measured in megawatts in accordance with International Electrotechnical Commission Standard 60034-1 or any successor to that standard or any recognised equivalent standard

      total capacity means the total nominal capacity of a generator in a financial year (determined according to the nameplates of all of the generator’s generating plants).

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      Notes
      • Section 73: replaced, on , by section 28 of the Electricity Industry Amendment Act 2022 (2022 No 46).