Hon David Parker
Minister of Energy

12 September

Draft regulations to help distributed generation reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Proposed regulations for distributed generation will encourage investment in small scale electricity generation, Energy Minister David Parker says.

The Minister released the draft regulations for consultation today.

Major electricity generators connect directly to the national grid, which is operated by Transpower, but around 10 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity comes from smaller plants connected to local lines networks.

Known as distributed generation, this includes local hydro schemes, landfill gas, small geothermal, gas, wind and solar generation and cogeneration, which uses spare industrial heat to produce electricity.

David Parker said that distributed generation developers must approach their local distributor to make arrangements for the connection of their generation, and there is currently no consistent nationwide standard governing such arrangements.

“Establishing regulations for the connection of distributed generation will make it easier for developers of such generation," he said.

“Investment in distributed generation can contribute to security of supply by increasing overall generation capacity, and reducing the amount of power lost during transmission. Most distributed generation exporting to local lines networks is based on renewable energy sources, which helps us avoid the greenhouse gas emissions otherwise produced by generation using fossil fuels."

"The effect of the regulations is that lines companies can only charge distributed generators the additional costs caused by distributed generation. If there's no additional costs, there's no charge."

The draft regulations specify the terms and conditions that apply to the connection of distributed generation in the absence of contractually agreed terms.

Submissions are due on the draft regulations by 10 October 2006.
See: www.med.govt.nz/electricity/distributed-generation/

ENDS

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