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Outage planning policy
Our Outage planning policy clarifies how, in Transpower's dual roles as system operator and owner of the national grid, we will meet our obligations around outage planning, coordination and assessment.
This policy ensures
- our approaches in both roles are more transparent,
- in our system operator role we:
- will continue to publish assessments where there are outages that may cause a security concern
- will consider economic impacts of outages and the mitigation of security violations where this is relevant.
The policy is an internal policy, that we have published and discussed with industry participants.
It draws on our Code obligations, particularly those which deal with the general considerations we, as grid owner, must make in planning outages, and those that are relevant to our system operator role in assessing outages and notifying interested parties. These are the areas where we want to be clearer about our approach, and clearer about how we will maintain impartiality in our system operator service.
Some of our other obligations, particularly in our role as owner of the national grid are described in the Outage Protocol, which steps through how we will publish and consult on our annual outage plan, and how we will make changes to the Annual Outage Plan. This policy does not detail these types of procedural responsibilities.
The situations where we, as system operator, will publish assessments to POCP (Planned Outage Coordination Process)
As part of the policy, and particularly principle four, we will publish assessments, from four weeks out from outage start date, in some situations. This is to provide more up-to-date information to industry participants, so they can be made more aware of potential security risk and take appropriate action. Most situations will be when planned outages are causing an actual or perceived tighter security situation. This may include energy and reserve shortfalls, voltage stability violations or thermal violations.
The system operators process for managing the Planned Outage Coordination Procedure, and the associated POCP Assessment templates are found below. These POCP assessments focus on four key areas of system security; Upper North Island or Zone1 (Z1) voltage stability; Upper South Island or Zone 3 (Z3) voltage stability; HVDC; New Zealand Generation Balance (NZGB) shortfalls. The process also covers other general situations for which the system operator will publish assessments.
Outage notification guidance
The Electricity Authority has amended the Electricity Industry Participation Code by clarifying requirements for outage notification. These amendments come into effect on 1 January 2025.
Outage notification requirements
- Intermittent Generators: capacity reduction of >= 10 MW
- Non-Intermittent Generators: capacity reduction of >= 5 MW
- Direct Connect Consumers: offtake reduction >= min(20 MW, 20% if >= 5MW)
- Distributors: any outage of an asset connected directly connected to grid, and
- Any outage any participant considers could impact the SO’s ability to comply or plan to comply with the PPOs (such consideration informed by asking the SO for advice where necessary).
This applies to both planned and unplanned outages.
POCP (Planned Outage Co-ordination Process) is the preferred method and manner specified by the system operator for outage notification and disclosure.
Planned outage co-ordination process
The POCP application is available on the Operations Customer Portal and hosts the outage database and a detailed User Guide.
POCP Help Information
Videos that explain how to navigate POCP and perform searches for outages are available on our Transpower YouTube channel.
Look for the playlist Planned Outage Co-ordination Process.
Further information on using POCP is available in the UG-SD-989 POCP Userguide.
NZGB Help Information
Videos that explain how to navigate the NZGB application are available on our Transpower YouTube channel.
Look for the playlist NZGB Tutorial.
Further information on using POCP is available in the UG-OC-841 NZGB - Application and Calculation User Guide.
Questions and answers
We have listed below common questions we have received from industry along with our responses. We will continue to update this section and share with participants any updates.
- Is demand Response to be included as it is not offered in and therefore is not shown in the forward schedules?
System Operator Response 23 March 2021
At this stage demand response only needs to be disclosed to the system operator if;
it meets one of the other criteria for outage disclosure, and
the decision to initiate the demand response is made prior to the publication of the relevant forward schedule (i.e. more than 36 hours from real-time)
Demand response is an evolving part of the electricity system and the system operator will continue to monitor the impacts of demand response on system security.
- Are Wind Farms included in the 20 MW requirement?
System Operator Response 4 March 2021
Yes they are, we have considered this question and whilst wind farm station output is usually considered to be 0MW during planning security studies for specific outages, an element of Wind farm Station output is considered in other assessments such as NZGB
- Duration of load outages that require notification i.e. >24 hrs?
System Operator Response 23 March 2021
All grid owner outages and GXP Ties that meet the disclosure guidelines require disclosure regardless of duration. All other outages require disclosure when their duration exceeds one trading period (30 minutes).
- Does the load requirement apply to conforming and non-conforming loads?
System Operator Response 4 March 2021
Yes it does.