Commerce Commission Pre-work and Approval

Overview

For seeking regulatory approval to undertake major capital projects, Transpower follows a 3-stage process:

Setting out the need for investment and long listing of possible options
Shortlisting a number of options to take forward for further investigation
Selecting a preferred option and proposing it to the Commerce Commission.

Our Western Bay of Plenty Programme first started by seeking feedback about our thinking, assumptions, and possible early options for upgrades on the high-voltage electricity transmission network for this region.

Setting out the need for investment and long-listing consultation

What did we consult on?

In this consultation, we set out a 'long-list' of development options that may contribute to meeting these needs. We sought your feedback about these possible solutions.

We recognise there may be non-transmission options that could defer the need for upgrades to our networks, so we also requested information on any such alternatives.

As well as these matters, we also consulted on the thinking that lies behind this work - the need for investment, the electricity demand and generation scenarios on which our analysis is based, and key assumptions we will make.

Consultation documents

Our consultation information included an Overview document and five Attachment documents, each of which focused on a specific aspect of our consultation.

Throughout the consultation documents, we included questions for consideration and response in submissions. These were intended to help respondent, who did not have to answer any or all of these questions, and were welcome to raise other issues relevant to our project. We also provided a template document for responses to these questions.

Responses to our consultation

We sought and welcomed feedback on our consultation through written submissions. The submission period was from 17 July to 13 September 2023. We extended this period for a few days to those submitters who requested additional time to provide their submissions.

The submissions we received are provided below.

We also provided a summary of these consultation submissions and our responses to the matters raised by submitters.

WBoP - Summary of and response to long-list consultation submissions

Short-listing Consultation

Having received feedback to test our assumptions, we then went back to stakeholders with a number of different shortlisted options.

Public consultation was open until 10 September 2024 on the short-list of preferred options.

Our consultation information included an overview document and six attachment documents, each of which focused on a specific aspect of our consultation.

Here are the documents -

Consultation responses

See the WBoP - Shortlist Summary of submissions for a summary of the key points raised and Transpower's responses. Individual submissions on the short list options are published below.

Application to the Commerce Commission

Following our short-listing, we took our preferred development path to the Commerce Commission for approval - their approval allows us to recapture the costs of the project against our balance sheet.

Main proposal document

WBoP Major capex proposal

Supporting documents

WBoP - Attachment 1 - Compliance Requirements

WBoP - Attachment 2 - Overview of need

WBoP - Attachment 3 - Demand and generation scenarios

WBoP - Attachment 4 - Short list of development plans

WBoP - Attachment 5 - Options analysis

WBoP - Attachment 6 - Costing

WBoP - Attachment 7 - Stakeholder consultation

WBoP - Attachment 8 - Benefits of modelling

WBoP - Attachment 9 - Approach to NTS