Technical rules consist of the standards, procedures and planning criteria governing the construction and operation of an electricity network, and deal with all the matters listed in Appendix 6 of the Electricity Networks Access Code (Access Code).
Approved Technical Rules for the SWIN
The ERA published its Decision to approve revisions to Western Power’s Technical Rules on 10 November 2011. The revised Technical Rules took effect on 23 December 2011. The ERA published a Notice seeking public comment on the proposed amendments on 16 August 2011. Submissions were received from:
The ERA has published the following notices listing exemptions granted by Western Power.
Proposals to amend Technical Rules may be submitted to the ERA for approval at any time, by the service provider (Western Power); the Chair of the Technical Rules Committee; or a service provider of an interconnected network.
Under the Access Code, Western Power was required to submit to the ERA, proposed technical rules for its ‘covered’ (regulated) SWIN at the same time it submitted its first proposed access arrangement .
The ERA approved and published Western Power’s technical rules on 26 April 2007, to become effective from 1 July 2007:
The following documents were issued by and/or submitted to the ERA as part of the approval process prescribed in the Access Code (these documents are now archived):
The Access Code required Western Power’s Technical Rules for the South West Interconnected Network (SWIN) to be reviewed. The ERA published its review of Western Power’s Technical Rules on 16 August 2011. The review took into consideration a submission received from an interested party.
A service provider of a ‘non-covered’ network that is required by the Access Code to have technical rules, must either give notice to the ERA that it wishes to adopt another service provider’s technical rules or submit its own proposed technical rules for approval by 25 October 2007.
On 26 October 2007, the ERA issued a notice granting service providers of non-covered networks an extension of three months, to 25 January 2008, to submit a notice indicating the adoption of Western Power’s Technical Rules or submit their own technical rules.
On 25 January 2008, the ERA issued a notice granting service providers of non-covered networks a further extension of 3 months, to 25 April 2008, to submit a notice indicating the adoption of Western Power’s Technical Rules or submit their own technical rules.
On 23 April 2008, the ERA issued a notice granting service providers of non-covered networks a further extension of 3 months, to 25 July 2008, to submit a notice indicating whether they propose to adopt Western Power’s Technical Rules or submit their own technical rules.
On 23 July 2008, the ERA issued a notice granting service providers of non-covered networks a further extension of 2 months, to 25 September 2008, to submit a notice indicating whether they propose to adopt Western Power’s Technical Rules or submit their own technical rules.
In November 2008, Chapter 12 of the Access Code which relates to technical rules was amended to remove the previous requirement for non-covered network service providers to submit technical rules to the ERA for approval. It was replaced by sections requiring the ERA to develop model technical rules and subsequent to their publication, non-covered network service providers would be required to submit technical rules to the ERA within 3 months. Progress on developing these model technical rules is detailed in the Model Technical Rules section.
Section 12.61 of the Electricity Networks Access Code 2004 requires the Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) to draft, approve, publish and advertise model technical rules for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). It is anticipated that these model technical rules will be used by those service providers of non-covered networks that are part of the SWIS and are required to have technical rules under section 12.6 of the Access Code.
As the model technical rules are to be developed for the SWIS, which comprises in large part Western Power’s South West Interconnected Network, the ERA proposes to base these on Western Power’s Technical Rules. The ERA considers that the commencement of the development of model technical rules should await the finalisation and approval of amended Technical Rules for Western Power’s network which are currently being reviewed by the ERA.
The Authority has notified the following extensions of time with respect to the deadline for publishing model technical rules:
- In November 2009, extended from 1 December 2009 to 1 June 2010.
- By notice of 20 May 2010 extended to 1 June 2011.
- By notice of 23 May 2011 further extended to 1 June 2012.
