UTS 16 February 2024
We completed an investigation into whether an undesirable trading situation arose and concluded that no UTS occurred. We would like to thank all submitters for their time and insights which assisted with the Authority's assessment
On this page —
Overview
The Electricity Authority carried out an investigation into a possible undesirable trading situation (UTS) that arose following a High Court decision released on 16 February 2024.
The High Court decided scarcity prices were incorrectly applied to four trading periods on 9 August 2021. As a result of the High Court decision, prices on 9 August 2021 have been determined by offers and demand management by the system operator.
The Authority carried out an investigation into a possible UTS as a result.
Following the investigation, we have reached a preliminary decision that a UTS has developed and are now seeking feedback on this decision.
Our preliminary decision
Following an investigation into the possible UTS, our preliminary decision is that prices for trading periods 38 and 39 were artificially depressed by demand management, in circumstances where participants would expect higher prices to apply, and this threatens, or may threaten, confidence in the wholesale market.
We invited feedback on our preliminary decision paper, which sets out our investigation and findings.
Submissions
We would like to thank all submitters who provided input on our preliminary decision. Here are the six submissions received:
Cross-submissions
We received the following three cross-submissions:
Our final decision
We carefully considered all submissions and found that there was no UTS. The reasons for our decision are set out in the following final decision paper. We would like to thank all those who provided valuable input into the investigation of this UTS.
