The Electricity Authority is inviting local and international market makers to provide services to the New Zealand electricity futures market

The Electricity Authority (Authority) has a services contract opportunity for providers of market making services to support the New Zealand wholesale electricity futures market.

The Authority reviewed market making arrangements in the New Zealand futures market throughout 2020 and decided to procure market making services on a commercial basis.

The Authority is inviting organisations interested in providing market making services to give feedback on its proposed commercial market making scheme through a request for information (RFI), released today.

“We are looking to procure additional commercial market makers into the New Zealand futures market to increase market diversity, strengthen competition and improve the robustness of the forward price curve,” says James Stevenson-Wallace, Chief Executive of the Electricity Authority.

“We want organisations interested in providing market making services to send feedback through our RFI, which will inform the final design of a commercial market making scheme that most efficiently meets the needs of New Zealand electricity consumers.”

The NZ electricity futures market is hosted on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). This market is currently supported by market making services provided by New Zealand’s four largest electricity generator-retailers: Contact Energy Limited, Genesis Energy Limited, Mercury NZ Limited and Meridian Energy Limited.

Commercial providers can be based locally or internationally and will be paid a fee for providing market making services. The fee will be determined via a competitive tender later this year.

The RFI is published on GETS.govt.nz(external link) the New Zealand Government’s procurement portal and is open until 5pm 12 March 2021.

After the close of the RFI, the Authority will develop the final scheme design. The Authority will then initiate a formal procurement process, by seeking registrations of interest (ROI) from interested parties, compile a shortlist of suppliers and seek proposals through a request for proposal (RFP).

Find out more about the stages of the procurement process.