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Electricity Industry Act 2010

Industry participants and consumers - Continuance of supply

105: Continuance of distributors' supply obligation

You could also call this:

"Electricity companies must keep providing power to certain places"

Illustration for Electricity Industry Act 2010

This law talks about companies that supply electricity to different places. These companies are called distributors. The law says that some distributors have to keep providing electricity to certain places.

If you're a distributor who had to get permission before stopping electricity supply to a place, or if you took over from such a distributor, you must keep supplying electricity to that place. You can do this in two ways:

  1. You can provide the wires and equipment needed to connect the place to your electricity network.
  2. You can supply electricity to the place from a different source.

However, you might not have to do this if other laws, rules, or agreements say otherwise.

If you're supposed to supply electricity to a place and you don't, you could get in trouble. You might have to pay a fine of up to $10,000, plus $1,000 for each day you don't supply electricity. This can happen if:

  1. You know the electricity supply has stopped and you don't start it again as soon as you reasonably can.
  2. You knowingly stop supplying electricity when you're not allowed to.

The law also explains some special terms. A 'landowner' is someone who owns the electrical equipment where it connects to the distributor's lines. 'Supplying electricity from an alternative source' means providing electricity from somewhere other than the distributor's usual network.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2634508.

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106: Cessation and suspension of supply obligation, or

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Part 4Industry participants and consumers
Continuance of supply

105Continuance of distributors' supply obligation

  1. This section applies to a distributor who, in relation to any place,—

  2. is, immediately before the repeal by this Act of section 62 of the Electricity Act 1992, prohibited from ceasing to supply line function services to the place without the prior consent of either the Minister or every consumer who would be affected by the cessation of those services; or
    1. is the successor in business to a distributor referred to in paragraph (a).

      1. A distributor to whom this section applies must, in relation to the place referred to in subsection (1), either—

      2. supply line function services to the place so that the place is within the distributor's network; or
        1. supply the place with electricity from an alternative source.

          1. The obligation in subsection (2) is subject to anything to the contrary in the Electricity Act 1992, any regulations made under section 169 of that Act, or any written agreement, entered into before this section comes into force, between the distributor and a landowner who is, or would be but for the agreement, affected by the obligation.

          2. A distributor who is obliged under subsection (2) to supply line function services or electricity from an alternative source to a place commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 and to a further fine not exceeding $1,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues, if the distributor,—

          3. having been made aware that supply to the place has ceased in the circumstances described in section 106(2)(a), fails to resume supply as soon as is reasonable in the circumstances; or
            1. knowingly ceases to supply line function services or electricity (as the case may be) to the place, other than in the circumstances described in section 106(2)(b) or (c).

              1. In this section and sections 106 to 108,—

                landowner, in relation to a place, means a person who owns the lines or electrical installations at the place, being lines or electrical installations to which a distributor's lines are connected

                  supplying electricity from an alternative source means supplying a place with electricity from a source other than a distributor's network, and includes, if necessary, supplying the associated line function services to deliver that electricity.

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                  Notes
                  • Section 105(4): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).