The Electricity Authority () is an independent Crown entity responsible for the regulation of the New Zealand electricity market. The Authority was established in November 2010, following a government review of the electricity industry, and replaced the Electricity Commission. The Authority has a narrower focus on industry competition, reliability and efficiency than the Electricity Commission had.
The key functions performed by the Authority are:
Functions that were performed by the Commission, but which are undertaken by agencies other than the Authority include:
The Electricity Authority is publicly funded, and this cost is then recovered by the government through a levy on electricity industry participants. This levy has the potential to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity prices. A portion is on-charges through electricity bills (roughly 0.4% of household bills). Additionally, this levy funds electricity efficiency programmes delivered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
These Levy rates are rest based on the costs burdens on the Electricity Authority, and the costs of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's electricity efficiency programmes quantity of electricity generated, purchased and conveyed, plus the number of consumer connections.