New Zealand Legislation: Acts
Acts are laws made by Parliament
(1) This section applies to an electricity business—
(a) that either—
(i) is required to comply with the arm's-length rules; or
(ii) would be required to comply with the arm's-length rules if the threshold for those rules were set at 5 MW of connected generation (instead of 10 MW); and
(b) that sells more than 5 GWh of electricity to connected customers in a financial year.
(2) Every director of that electricity business must ensure that—
(a) the business has a comprehensive, written use-of-systems agreement that provides for the supply of line services (to the extent that those services are for the purpose of retailing) to the business that is involved in selling electricity (entered into, in the case of a business to which the corporate separation rule does not apply, as if the businesses were separate legal persons); and
(b) the terms of that use-of-systems agreement do not discriminate in favour of one business and do not contain arrangements that include elements that the business usually omits, or omit elements that the business usually includes, in use-of-systems agreements with parties that are—
(i) connected or related only by the transaction or dealing in question; and
(ii) acting independently; and
(iii) each acting in its own best interests; and
(c) the business operates in accordance with that use-of-systems agreement; and
(d) the business publishes that use-of-systems agreement on an Internet site maintained by or on behalf of the business so that it is available to the public at all reasonable times.
(3) The directors of that electricity business must publish on an Internet site maintained by or on behalf of the business, so that it is available to the public at all reasonable times, a certificate, signed by those directors, stating whether or not, in the preceding calender year,—
(a) the terms in the use-of-systems agreement are a true and fair view of the terms on which line services were supplied in respect of the sales to which the agreement relates during that year; and
(b) this section was otherwise fully complied with during that year.
(4) Every director commits an offence who—
(a) refuses or knowingly fails to comply with this section; or
(b) publishes a use-of-systems agreement or a certificate knowing that it is false or misleading in a material particular.
(5) Every director who commits an offence under subsection (4) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $200,000.
Section 17F: inserted, on 14 October 2008, by section 10 of the Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 71).
