iSAYSO
Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
This request went directly to the top of the Corporation executive within 24 hours.
Why should the Govt take dividends off us through their 51% holding of electricity company shares. They have the ability to reduce our electricity bills considerably.
Subject: OIA-26-0022 – Request for clarification, reconsideration, and transfer position
Airihi and Alex,
Thank you for the response dated 8 May 2026 and Appendix One.
I have reviewed the response, Appendix One, and the public links identified by the Authority. I am writing to request clarification and reconsideration before deciding whether to seek review by the Ombudsman.
1. Central issue – absence of integrated assessment
The Authority’s response states that it does not hold, and is not aware of, any all-of-government review of the impacts of wind generation. It also states that the Authority does not hold documents identifying which agencies assess the relevant components or cumulative effects.
Please confirm whether the Authority’s position is that it is not aware of any integrated national assessment or formal cross-agency process that assesses wind generation impacts across public health, low-frequency noise and infrasound, vibration, seismic and geotechnical risk, infrastructure resilience, grid integration, transmission constraints, curtailment, reserve or firming generation, balancing costs, spot-market volatility, wholesale and retail price impacts, and consumer hardship.
2. Released material confirms price and volatility relevance
Appendix One appears to confirm that wind generation and renewable integration are directly relevant to wholesale-price formation, volatility, and consumer impacts.
For example, the released excerpts refer to wind volatility contributing to rising wholesale prices; wind forecast inaccuracies affecting spot prices; wind forecasts being out by over 100MW and, in some cases, up to approximately 250MW; increased reliance on intermittent wind and solar generation potentially increasing spot-market volatility; volatility potentially affecting future prices through risk premia; lack of flexible generation for firming renewable plant; expected residential electricity bill increases from 2025; and energy hardship impacts.
These matters are central to the request. Please reconsider whether any material removed as “out of scope” in Appendix One is in fact within scope if it concerns wind generation, renewable integration, wholesale prices, retail prices, volatility, firming, balancing, transmission, consumer impacts, or energy hardship.
Please also provide the full title, date, reference number, and total page count for each of Documents 1-4 in Appendix One.
3. Section 14 transfer
The original request expressly asked that where information was held by another agency, the relevant part be transferred under section 14 of the Official Information Act.
The response identifies several areas that may be held by other agencies, including seismic and geotechnical assessment material, which may be held by local councils; grid integration material, which may be held by Transpower; and Crown dividend and financial return material, which may be held by Treasury.
Please confirm: (1) whether the Authority formally considered section 14 transfer for each part refused under section 18(g); (2) if transfer was considered, the reason transfer was not made; (3) if transfer was not considered, why not; and (4) whether the Authority maintains that no section 14 transfer is required where another agency was copied or sent the original request separately.
4. Health, infrasound, and nocebo material
The Authority refused the health, noise, and vibration part under section 18(g), but provided links to public research, including the Massey paper on wind turbine infrasound and the Auckland paper concerning nocebo response.
Please confirm whether the Authority has relied on, received, circulated, or referred to either of those papers in any internal advice, external advice, briefing, correspondence, risk assessment, or public-facing material; received any advice comparing nocebo-based explanations with research concerning infrasound, low-frequency noise, vibration, sleep disturbance, or physiological impacts; referred any health, infrasound, vibration, sleep disturbance, or cumulative-effects concerns to another agency for assessment; or has any record identifying which agency is responsible for determining whether wind turbine health complaints are nocebo-related, exposure-related, or otherwise requiring investigation.
The concern is not that the Electricity Authority must itself conduct medical research. The concern is whether government has a documented process for assessing competing scientific positions before wind generation is promoted and integrated into national electricity policy.
5. Section 18(f) refusals
The Authority refused the economic-performance and electricity-market-structure parts under section 18(f). Please confirm whether the Authority considered partial release, a document schedule, an index of relevant reports, or a narrowed set of formal briefings before refusing those parts.
In particular, please confirm whether the Authority could provide, without substantial collation, a list of relevant Trading Conduct Reports or Quarterly Market Performance Reviews discussing wind generation and wholesale prices; any document schedule for reports concerning wind generation, LCOE, renewable integration, firming, volatility, and wholesale-price impacts; and any formal briefings to the Minister concerning retail-price increases, network costs, or renewable-transition costs.
6. Withdrawal / omission of question 8
The response states that the Authority asked whether I was happy to omit question 8 and that no response was received. For clarity, I did not expressly withdraw question 8. Please do not treat silence as withdrawal of that part of the request. If the Authority maintains its refusal under section 18(f), please provide the basis on which partial release, further consultation, or a narrowed document schedule was not practicable.
7. Public interest
The released material appears to confirm a significant public-interest issue: wind and renewable integration may affect volatility, firming requirements, risk premia, wholesale prices, retail prices, and consumer hardship, yet no integrated whole-of-government assessment has been identified.
Please treat this email as a request for clarification and reconsideration of the response, including the use of “out of scope” removals, the section 18(f) refusals, and the decision not to formally transfer parts of the request under section 14.
Tracy
On Friday, May 08, 2026 15:25 NZST, OIA <[email protected]> wrote:
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Kia ora Tracy
Thank you for your request of 10 March 2026, under the Official Information Act 1982.
Please find attached the Electricity Authority’s response. If you have any questions regarding our response, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Ngā mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nzFrom: OIA <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, 9 April 2026 2:35 pm
To: [email protected]
Cc: OIA <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: [External] Re: [External] Re: FW: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Kia ora Tracy
I refer to your official information request dated 10 March 2026, for:
1. Whole-of-Government Review of Wind Generation
Please provide any nationwide or whole-of-government review, audit, or cumulative assessment concerning wind generation in New Zealand that evaluates impacts including:
• public health effects
• low frequency noise or infrasound
• vibration or ground transmission effects
• geotechnical effects
• seismic or fault-line proximity risks
• infrastructure resilience
• electricity grid integration
• transmission constraints
• generation curtailment
• balancing or reserve generation requirements
• electricity price impacts.
If no such integrated national assessment exists, please provide documents identifying which agencies assess each component of these issues and how cumulative effects are evaluated across agencies.
2. Health, Noise, and Vibration Research
Please provide all reports, briefings, scientific advice, or correspondence held since 1 January 2015 relating to wind turbine health or environmental effects, including low frequency noise, infrasound, vibration, sleep disturbance, or physiological impacts.
Please also provide any documents referring to research by Dr Bruce Rapley or any other scientific studies concerning wind turbine vibration or infrasound.
3. Seismic and Geotechnical Assessment
Please provide documents relating to seismic risk assessments used when siting wind turbines, including turbine placement near geological fault systems and geotechnical stability analysis for wind turbine installations.
4. Electricity Grid Integration
Please provide reports, modelling, or advice since 1 January 2018 concerning wind generation integration into the national electricity system, including transmission upgrades, congestion, curtailment events, reserve generation requirements, balancing costs, and grid capacity analysis.
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Please provide reports analysing the commercial profitability of wind generation projects in New Zealand, comparative generation costs between wind and other energy sources, and the effect of wind generation on wholesale and retail electricity prices.
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide briefings or reports since 1 January 2020 identifying the causes of increases in residential electricity prices, including wholesale prices, transmission charges, distribution charges, retail margins, generation investment costs, renewable integration costs, and regulatory compliance costs.
7. Crown Ownership and Financial Interests
Please provide documents showing total dividends or financial returns received by the Crown since 2018 from Meridian Energy, Mercury NZ, and Genesis Energy.
Please also provide any analysis or advice concerning whether Crown shareholding in electricity companies creates any actual or perceived tension between consumer electricity affordability and Crown financial returns.
8. Electricity Market Structure
Please provide any reports discussing electricity market concentration, competition levels in electricity generation and retail markets, and the relationship between market structure and electricity pricing.
9. Data Requests
Please provide, where available in spreadsheet form, annual residential electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual wholesale electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual Crown dividend receipts from electricity companies from 2015 to present, and any electricity hardship indicators held by your agency.
The OIA requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no later than 20 working days after the day we received your request. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our decision, to 8 May 2026.
This extension is necessary because your request necessitates a search through a large quantity of information and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with our operations.
Could you please respond to this email by COP 10 April 2026 confirming that you are happy for us to proceed with your refined request as set out in the email below?
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: OIA <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, 8 April 2026 4:19 pm
To: F Q <[email protected]>
Cc: OIA <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [External] Re: [External] Re: FW: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Kia ora Tracy
Thanks for taking the time to speak to us this afternoon and refine your request.
Our understanding of your refined request is as follows:
Questions 1-4: Remain the same as the original request.
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Please provide reports analysing the commercial profitability of wind generation projects in New Zealand, comparative generation costs between wind and other energy sources, and the effect of wind generation on wholesale and retail electricity prices.
Timeframe: 2018-present
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide formal briefings or reports provided to the Minister for Energy or Cabinet, since November 2023, on:
- Wind generation and its impact on the wholesale market (wholesale prices).
- Changes in retail prices.
Question 7: Remains the same as the original request.
8. Electricity Market Structure
Please provide any reports discussing electricity market concentration, competition levels in electricity generation and retail markets, and the relationship between market structure and electricity pricing.
Given our conversation, are you happy for this question to be withdrawn? We can answer your question regarding how wind generation affects electricity prices through questions 5 and 6 above.
9. Data Requests
Please provide, where available in spreadsheet form, annual residential electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual wholesale electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual Crown dividend receipts from electricity companies from 2015 to present, and any electricity hardship indicators held by your agency.
Timeframe: November 2023-present.
Could you please confirm you are happy to proceed with our refined scope? If you have any questions, please let me know.
Ngā mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: F Q <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 7 April 2026 9:31 pm
To: OIA <[email protected]>
Cc: Records <[email protected]>
Subject: [External] Re: [External] Re: FW: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Please be careful with this email as it has bypassed our usual Junk Email checks
Re: OIA Request – Scope discussion
Alex,
Thank you for your email. I am open to a short discussion to assist practical scoping of the request, provided this is simply to assist efficient processing and does not affect my rights under the Official Information Act.
For clarity, the core purpose of the request is to understand:
• whether any whole-of-government assessment exists regarding wind generation impacts
• how cross-agency responsibilities are allocated where no integrated review exists
• what high-level drivers of electricity price increases have been identified in advice to Ministers
I am happy to focus discussion on identifying a workable scope that allows release of the most relevant Ministerial briefings and cross-agency material, rather than operational working documents.
I would also appreciate confirmation that:
• any discussion will not delay the statutory response timeframe
• any refinement will be confirmed in writing
• parts capable of response will still be processed if others require refinement
I am available:
Wednesday 8th April 2026
14:00 to 16:00
Thursday 9th April 2026
10:00 to 11:00
Phone 092689204
If helpful, I am also comfortable proceeding on the basis of:
• Ministerial briefings and formal advice only
• cross-agency or Cabinet-level material only
• timeframe November 2023 – present for pricing material
• earlier timeframe retained only where necessary for wind assessment structure
Tracy
On Apr 7, 2026 at 3:41 PM, <OIA> wrote:
Kia ora Tracy
Would you be free to discuss your OIA request in the next couple of days? This will help us understand what you are looking for more clearly and we can discuss a feasible scope.
Let me know if you are keen to chat and what times could work for you.
Ngā mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: OIA
Sent: Wednesday, 1 April 2026 4:41 pm
To: [email protected]
Cc: OIA <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [External] Re: FW: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Kia ora Tracy
Thank you for your response and for agreeing to refine your request. After speaking to the relevant team again, I have been advised that the request would still require substantial collation and research, and we ask that you refine your request further.
We note that requests for documents such as Cabinet papers from a previous administration are subject to specific conventions, which can protract the time an agency takes to respond to requests. As such, we would recommend refining your request to information pertaining to the current government. This would mean the scope of your new request would be from November 2023 to the date your request was received. Are you happy to refine your request to this timeframe?
In terms of specific parts of your request that require further refinement, I have copied these below with comments in red underneath.
– Any documents describing how cumulative or cross-domain effects are (or are not) assessed across agencies
Could you please clarify what is meant by the above part of your request?
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide briefings or reports since 1 January 2020 identifying the causes of increases in residential electricity prices, including wholesale prices, transmission charges, distribution charges, retail margins, generation investment costs, renewable integration costs, and regulatory compliance costs.
As previously explained, the Electricity Authority is constantly working on electricity prices, so the scope of your request remains very broad. Could you please confirm if you are only looking for this information in relation to wind generation?
Could you please respond to this email and provide refinement by 3 April 2026?
Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Ngā mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: F Q <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, 25 March 2026 10:49 pm
To: OIA <[email protected]>
Cc: Records <[email protected]>
Subject: [External] Re: FW: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Please be careful with this email as it has bypassed our usual Junk Email checks
Kia ora Alex,
Thank you for your email and for engaging constructively on refinement of the request.
I am happy to refine the scope to assist with efficient collation while maintaining the core public interest purpose of the request.
For clarity, I provide the following refinements:
1. Whole-of-Government Review of Wind Generation
This request is limited to:
– Any cross-agency, whole-of-government, or inter-agency coordinated review of wind generation impacts in New Zealand
– Timeframe: 1 January 2015 to present
If no such integrated review exists, please confirm this explicitly and provide:
– Any documents identifying which agencies are responsible for assessing the following components:
– health (including infrasound / low frequency noise)
– geotechnical / seismic considerations
– electricity system integration and pricing impacts
– Any documents describing how cumulative or cross-domain effects are (or are not) assessed across agencies
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Refined to:
– Timeframe: 1 January 2018 to present
– Scope limited to:
– Reports or briefings prepared for Ministers, Cabinet, or senior officials
– Any analysis comparing levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) or equivalent metrics between wind and other generation types
– Any analysis of impacts of wind generation on wholesale electricity prices
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Refined to:
– Timeframe: 1 January 2020 to present
– Scope limited to:
– Formal briefings, reports, or advice provided to the Minister for Energy or Cabinet
– Documents identifying key drivers of residential electricity price increases
For clarity:
– “Renewable integration costs” refers to costs associated with integrating intermittent generation into the system, including balancing, reserves, and curtailment impacts
– “Regulatory compliance costs” refers to costs imposed on participants through regulatory requirements (including market rules, compliance obligations, and environmental or safety regulation where referenced in pricing analysis)
8. Electricity Market Structure
Refined to:
– Timeframe: 1 January 2018 to present
– Scope limited to:
– Reports, briefings, or advice provided to Ministers or senior officials
– Any analysis of:
– market concentration in generation and retail
– competition levels
– relationship between market structure and electricity pricing
General Clarification
For avoidance of doubt, where material has already been published (e.g. on your website or elsewhere), I am happy for you to provide links rather than duplicate documents.
If any part of the request remains likely to be refused under section 18(f), I request that you:
– identify the specific part at issue, and
– consider whether it can be met through further reasonable refinement or partial release, consistent with your obligations under the Act.
Please proceed on this refined basis.
Ngā mihi,
Tracy
On Mar 24, 2026 at 10:21 AM, <OIA> wrote:
Kia ora Tracy,
Thank you for your request of 10 March 2026, under the Official Information Act 1982, for the information referred to in the below email chain.
We are writing to ask if you would be willing to refine down to a shorter and specific time period and narrow the scope further to enable us to best search for and collate information that may be in scope. For sake of clarity, I have copied the parts of your requests needing refinement below, and added comments in red.
1. Whole-of-Government Review of Wind Generation
Please provide any nationwide or whole-of-government review, audit, or cumulative assessment concerning wind generation in New Zealand that evaluates impacts including:
• public health effects
• low frequency noise or infrasound
• vibration or ground transmission effects
• geotechnical effects
• seismic or fault-line proximity risks
• infrastructure resilience
• electricity grid integration
• transmission constraints
• generation curtailment
• balancing or reserve generation requirements
• electricity price impacts.
If no such integrated national assessment exists, please provide documents identifying which agencies assess each component of these issues and how cumulative effects are evaluated across agencies.
Can you please confirm if you are looking for an all-of-Government review only, which we would interpret to mean a cross-agency review of wind generation? If this is not what you are looking for – could you please provide further clarification and explanation of what you are looking for?
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Please provide reports analysing the commercial profitability of wind generation projects in New Zealand, comparative generation costs between wind and other energy sources, and the effect of wind generation on wholesale and retail electricity prices.
Can you please provide a timeframe for this part of your request?
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide briefings or reports since 1 January 2020 identifying the causes of increases in residential electricity prices, including wholesale prices, transmission charges, distribution charges, retail margins, generation investment costs, renewable integration costs, and regulatory compliance costs.
This part of your request is extremely broad, as the Electricity Authority is doing continuous work on electricity prices. In order to make this request manageable, we ask that you refine the timeframe to be narrower, and we also ask that you limit what type of material you are looking for. For example, we suggest that we could provide formal briefings that have been provided to the Minister for Energy, as this would make the collation of the material more feasible.
There are also two points which we require clarification on:
- renewable integration costs,
- and regulatory compliance costs.
Can you please provide further explanation on what you are referring to?
8. Electricity Market Structure
Please provide any reports discussing electricity market concentration, competition levels in electricity generation and retail markets, and the relationship between market structure and electricity pricing.
Can you please provide a timeframe for this part of your request?
Please note, that without refinement, these parts of your request may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation and research.
Ngâ mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: OIA
Sent: Wednesday, 11 March 2026 11:20 am
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
Kia ora Tracy,
Thank you for your request of 10 March 2026, under the Official Information Act 1982, for the following information:
1. Whole-of-Government Review of Wind Generation
Please provide any nationwide or whole-of-government review, audit, or cumulative assessment concerning wind generation in New Zealand that evaluates impacts including:
• public health effects
• low frequency noise or infrasound
• vibration or ground transmission effects
• geotechnical effects
• seismic or fault-line proximity risks
• infrastructure resilience
• electricity grid integration
• transmission constraints
• generation curtailment
• balancing or reserve generation requirements
• electricity price impacts.
If no such integrated national assessment exists, please provide documents identifying which agencies assess each component of these issues and how cumulative effects are evaluated across agencies.
2. Health, Noise, and Vibration Research
Please provide all reports, briefings, scientific advice, or correspondence held since 1 January 2015 relating to wind turbine health or environmental effects, including low frequency noise, infrasound, vibration, sleep disturbance, or physiological impacts.
Please also provide any documents referring to research by Dr Bruce Rapley or any other scientific studies concerning wind turbine vibration or infrasound.
3. Seismic and Geotechnical Assessment
Please provide documents relating to seismic risk assessments used when siting wind turbines, including turbine placement near geological fault systems and geotechnical stability analysis for wind turbine installations.
4. Electricity Grid Integration
Please provide reports, modelling, or advice since 1 January 2018 concerning wind generation integration into the national electricity system, including transmission upgrades, congestion, curtailment events, reserve generation requirements, balancing costs, and grid capacity analysis.
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Please provide reports analysing the commercial profitability of wind generation projects in New Zealand, comparative generation costs between wind and other energy sources, and the effect of wind generation on wholesale and retail electricity prices.
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide briefings or reports since 1 January 2020 identifying the causes of increases in residential electricity prices, including wholesale prices, transmission charges, distribution charges, retail margins, generation investment costs, renewable integration costs, and regulatory compliance costs.
7. Crown Ownership and Financial Interests
Please provide documents showing total dividends or financial returns received by the Crown since 2018 from Meridian Energy, Mercury NZ, and Genesis Energy.
Please also provide any analysis or advice concerning whether Crown shareholding in electricity companies creates any actual or perceived tension between consumer electricity affordability and Crown financial returns.
8. Electricity Market Structure
Please provide any reports discussing electricity market concentration, competition levels in electricity generation and retail markets, and the relationship between market structure and electricity pricing.
9. Data Requests
Please provide, where available in spreadsheet form, annual residential electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual wholesale electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual Crown dividend receipts from electricity companies from 2015 to present, and any electricity hardship indicators held by your agency.
10. Administrative Matters
If any part of this request is refused or withheld, please specify the statutory ground relied upon under the Official Information Act.
If the request requires refinement due to substantial collation, please contact me to discuss.
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 9 April 2026, being 20 working days after the day your request was received.
If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me by emailing [email protected].
Ngâ mihi nui,
Alex Shearer (she/her)
Senior Ministerial Advisor
Level 7, AON Centre, 1 Willis Street
PO Box 10041, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
www.ea.govt.nz
From: F Q <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 6:38 AM
To: *OIA <[email protected]>; Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY] <[email protected]>; Ministerial Services – WorkSafe <[email protected]>; Info Electricity Authority <[email protected]>
Cc: records <[email protected]>
Subject: [External] Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
You don’t often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
Please be careful with this email as it has bypassed our usual Junk Email checks
Official Information Act Request – Electricity Pricing, Wind Generation Assessments, Crown Ownership and Public Interest
To:
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (Energy & Resources)
The Treasury
Electricity Authority
Environmental Protection Authority
WorkSafe New Zealand
Transpower New Zealand Ltd
Greetings,
This request is made under the Official Information Act 1982.
Electricity affordability is a matter of significant public interest. The Crown retains majority shareholdings in several electricity generation companies while also influencing electricity market policy and regulatory settings. Electricity costs are now a substantial component of household cost-of-living pressures.
This request seeks clarification regarding electricity pricing, wind generation assessments, cumulative health and infrastructure impacts, and any analysis undertaken by government agencies regarding the relationship between Crown ownership interests and consumer electricity prices.
Where information is held by another agency, please transfer the relevant portion under section 14 of the Official Information Act.
1. Whole-of-Government Review of Wind Generation
Please provide any nationwide or whole-of-government review, audit, or cumulative assessment concerning wind generation in New Zealand that evaluates impacts including:
• public health effects
• low frequency noise or infrasound
• vibration or ground transmission effects
• geotechnical effects
• seismic or fault-line proximity risks
• infrastructure resilience
• electricity grid integration
• transmission constraints
• generation curtailment
• balancing or reserve generation requirements
• electricity price impacts.
If no such integrated national assessment exists, please provide documents identifying which agencies assess each component of these issues and how cumulative effects are evaluated across agencies.
2. Health, Noise, and Vibration Research
Please provide all reports, briefings, scientific advice, or correspondence held since 1 January 2015 relating to wind turbine health or environmental effects, including low frequency noise, infrasound, vibration, sleep disturbance, or physiological impacts.
Please also provide any documents referring to research by Dr Bruce Rapley or any other scientific studies concerning wind turbine vibration or infrasound.
3. Seismic and Geotechnical Assessment
Please provide documents relating to seismic risk assessments used when siting wind turbines, including turbine placement near geological fault systems and geotechnical stability analysis for wind turbine installations.
4. Electricity Grid Integration
Please provide reports, modelling, or advice since 1 January 2018 concerning wind generation integration into the national electricity system, including transmission upgrades, congestion, curtailment events, reserve generation requirements, balancing costs, and grid capacity analysis.
5. Economic Performance of Wind Generation
Please provide reports analysing the commercial profitability of wind generation projects in New Zealand, comparative generation costs between wind and other energy sources, and the effect of wind generation on wholesale and retail electricity prices.
6. Electricity Price Drivers
Please provide briefings or reports since 1 January 2020 identifying the causes of increases in residential electricity prices, including wholesale prices, transmission charges, distribution charges, retail margins, generation investment costs, renewable integration costs, and regulatory compliance costs.
7. Crown Ownership and Financial Interests
Please provide documents showing total dividends or financial returns received by the Crown since 2018 from Meridian Energy, Mercury NZ, and Genesis Energy.
Please also provide any analysis or advice concerning whether Crown shareholding in electricity companies creates any actual or perceived tension between consumer electricity affordability and Crown financial returns.
8. Electricity Market Structure
Please provide any reports discussing electricity market concentration, competition levels in electricity generation and retail markets, and the relationship between market structure and electricity pricing.
9. Data Requests
Please provide, where available in spreadsheet form, annual residential electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual wholesale electricity price averages from 2015 to present, annual Crown dividend receipts from electricity companies from 2015 to present, and any electricity hardship indicators held by your agency.
10. Administrative Matters
If any part of this request is refused or withheld, please specify the statutory ground relied upon under the Official Information Act.
If the request requires refinement due to substantial collation, please contact me to discuss.
Please provide the information electronically.
In good faith
Tracy
“The information contained in this transmission is confidential. It is intended for the named addressee only. If you are not the named addressee you may not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance upon this transmission.”
“The information contained in this transmission is confidential. It is intended for the named addressee only. If you are not the named addressee you may not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance upon this transmission.”
“The information contained in this transmission is confidential. It is intended for the named addressee only. If you are not the named addressee you may not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance upon this transmission.”