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Electricity Industry Act 2010

Miscellaneous - State-owned enterprise asset reconfiguration and miscellaneous matters - State-owned enterprise asset reconfiguration: General provisions

117: Directions that may be given by shareholding Ministers

You could also call this:

“Ministers can tell power companies what to do to make electricity cheaper and more reliable”

The law allows the shareholding Ministers to give directions to State generators before 1 November 2011. These directions are meant to make electricity markets more competitive and improve the security of electricity supply. Here’s what the Ministers can tell the State generators to do:

You can be asked to make long-term deals with each other for up to 15 years. These deals are about financial hedges for electricity.

The Ministers can tell Meridian to sell the Tekapo A and Tekapo B power stations to Genesis. This includes all the assets, rights, and responsibilities related to these stations.

Meridian might be told to buy the Whirinaki power station from the government. This would include all the assets, rights, and responsibilities that the government has for this station.

The Ministers can also tell you to make any other contracts needed to carry out these directions. They might even specify some or all of the terms and conditions for these contracts.

These rules are part of a plan to change how State generators own and manage their assets. The goal is to make things better for both wholesale and retail electricity markets.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3002219.

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Part 5 Miscellaneous
State-owned enterprise asset reconfiguration and miscellaneous matters: State-owned enterprise asset reconfiguration: General provisions

117Directions that may be given by shareholding Ministers

  1. The purpose of this section is to improve competition in both wholesale and retail electricity markets, and make improvements in security of supply, by adjusting the configuration of assets held by State generators.

  2. The shareholding Ministers may, at any time before 1 November 2011, give to the board of all or any of the State generators 1 or more of the following directions:

  3. a direction requiring the State generators to enter into 1 or more long-term contracts (of up to 15 years' duration) with each other for financial hedges for electricity for the purpose of this section:
    1. a direction requiring the transfer of ownership (such as by way of sale and purchase agreement) from Meridian to Genesis of all assets and any rights and obligations relating to Tekapo A and Tekapo B generating stations:
      1. a direction requiring Meridian to purchase from the Crown all assets and any rights and obligations of the Crown relating to the Whirinaki generating station:
        1. 1 or more directions requiring the State generators to enter into 1 or more contracts that are necessary or desirable to implement a direction under any of paragraphs (a) to (c) and specifying some or all of the terms and conditions of those contracts.

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