Licensing
Section
14(3) of the Electricity Reform Act 2000 provides
that a licence is required for:
-
generation of electricity;
-
owning or operating an
electricity network;
-
selling electricity;
-
system control over a power
system; or
-
other operations for which a
licence is required by the Regulations.
Section 87(1) of the
Electricity Reform Act 2000 also provides that, with ministerial approval,
the Commission may grant an exemption from some or all of the requirements in
Part 3 of the Act, including the requirement to be licensed. While any
application for an exemption will be considered on its merits in light of the
relevant legislation, the Commission anticipates that few exemptions will be
granted. Any request for an exemption from the requirement to be licensed should
be made to the Commission in a form similar to an application for a licence.
A Licensing Manual has been
prepared by the Utilities Commission to assist persons carrying on operations in
the Territory’s electricity supply industry, or who might wish to carry on such
operations, to consider whether they need to hold a licence.
The information contained in
the manual is provided for the purposes of guidance only, and not intended to be
an exhaustive statement of the law, policies and procedures applicable to the
licensing of operations in the electricity supply industry.
Licence Fees
Licence application fees and
the annual licence fee for a particular type of licence will be the fee fixed
from time to time by the Regulatory Minister. The fee is an amount that the
Minister considers to be a reasonable contribution towards administrative costs
Registers
As required by the Electricity
Reform Act, the Commission maintains a register of licences issued to
electricity entities. A register of exemptions granted under section 87(1) of
the Electricity Reform Act 2000, is also maintained. Hard copies of these
registers are kept at the Commission’s office and are available for public
inspection. Copies of major licences and exemptions can be viewed below. Licence
applications currently under consideration by the Commission are listed below.
General Exemption for
On-Suppliers
One of the operations in the
electricity supply industry that requires a licence is selling electricity.
Selling is defined as meaning trading in electricity (including selling of
electricity to customers).
The Government formed the view
that a full licensing regime would be overly onerous on small re-sellers of
electricity, so decided to grant an exemption from the need to be licensed under
certain circumstances.
The term "on-supplier" is
defined in the Electricity Reform (Administration) Regulations and may include
businesses such as caravan parks, exhibition centres, hostels, hotels,
industrial parks, lodging houses, marinas, market arcades, motels, shopping
centres and serviced apartments.
The conditions with which an
on-supplier must comply in order to retain the benefit of the exemption are also
set out in the Regulations.
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