The Electricity Act and Energy Companies Act

The Electricity Act 1992 provided for safety regulation, information disclosure and property access (as it still does), but beyond this, the electricity industry was, in 1992,  for the most part only subject to generic regulation, such as the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Commerce Act 1986. The Electricity Act allowed independent power producers to supply directly to a specific local market or customer and requires energy companies to disclose financial information to assist potential suppliers with grid and energy cost information. The Energy Companies Act covered Electricity market reform which separated the bodies responsible for transmission and generation and has increased competition within generation. These changes play an important part in promoting the development of renewable energy sources for electricity generation, including new renewables, and interest in these sources of energy has been growing. New renewables were exempt from a cap on the construction of additional generating capacity by the domit generator, ECNZ, but this organisation no longer exists.