New Zealand’s journey to implementing FTRs

That Bill Hogan is a Professor of Energy Policy at Harvard University and Director of the enormously influential Harvard Electricity Policy Group is impressive. Locally, however, he has particular status as the Guiding Mind behind the design of New Zealand's wholesale electricity market.

One of Hogan's key recommendations in the establishment of the wholesale market was that Financial Transmission Rights ("FTRs") be created alongside it. This wasn't part of the original implementation but, 16 years later, the Electricity Authority has appointed an FTR manager with the responsibility of running our first FTR auction in May 2013.

Professor Hogan hasn't worked in New Zealand since the early 2000s but was interested and pleased to hear of this new development. He kindly agreed to talk to the podcast about FTRs and why they're so important.

Last week, Bill talked about 2 areas in which US experience is instructive - how long to issue rights for and their use in funding merchant transmission. This week, Conrad Edwards, who's the Senior Development Analyst at the NZ FTR Manager, talks though some of the twists and turns we've taken since committing to implement FTRs in 1995.