Commission warns Wellington Electricity over standards

Commission warns Wellington Electricity over quality standards

The Commerce Commission has issued a warning letter to Wellington Electricity Lines Limited (WELL) after it failed to comply with minimum standards for network reliability in 2013 and 2014.

The Commission sets quality standards to encourage electricity distributors to maintain and improve the reliability of the service delivered to consumers. The quality standards limit the maximum number and length of power outages that the average consumer should experience in a year.

Deputy Chair Sue Begg said the Commission’s investigation found that while WELL had breached its quality standard there was no serious fault on its part.

“Weather events played a significant part in WELL failing to meet the standards we have set, but an independent engineering report also identified some specific steps it could take to improve the reliability performance of its network,” Ms Begg said.

“WELL has cooperated fully with our investigation. It has already acted on a number of the report’s recommendations and has complied with the quality standards in 2015 and 2016. The warning letter puts WELL on notice that we will take the breach into account in considering enforcement action for any future breaches.”

The warning letter, as well as the independent engineering report and WELL’s response to the report, can be viewed at http://www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-industries/electricity/electricity-default-price-quality-path/default-price-quality-path-enforcement-responses/.

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