Abstract
Overview
Introduction
National regulators are currently recommending new energy bodies at an
EU-level to guide policy making at the European Commission and help regulate
pan-European energy issues. Together with the increasing complexity of
interconnected markets and new market coupling arrangements, momentum is
building for the creation of an EU-wide energy regulator.
Scope
- A review of proposals for new energy regulatory powers at an EU level.
- A comparison of market coupling arrangements and their effect on the
development of an EU regulator.
- Insight into how and when an EU energy regulator might take shape.
Report Highlights
Because of the expanding web of market coupling arrangements, the competency
of certain national regulators expands well beyond national boundaries. This
creates a natural limit to Europe' s ability to solve the ' regulation gap'
through an organic growth of market coupling based purely on voluntary
co-operation and guidelines.
The enforcement of the EU' s 2003 regulation on the cross-border exchange of
electricity, its subsequent guidelines, and the application of appropriate
penalties are all left entirely to national regulatory authorities.
Consequently, rules and regulatory actions will vary between member states,
even with agreed guidelines in place.
Reasons to Purchase
- Understand how and when the EU might develop an energy regulatory agency.
- Understand the forces that create pressure for regulatory intervention at
a pan-European level.
- Compare emerging market coupling arrangements in Western European markets.
Table of Contents
- DATAMONITOR VIEW
- ANALYSIS
- There is currently no EU-wide energy regulator
- The EU does not have administrative agencies to impose sanctions in
most policy areas
- EU member states have been mandated to create national energy
regulators
- European national regulators are recommending the creation of an EU-wide
regulator
- Harmonized regulation of transmission activities across the EU is
urgently needed
- National regulators voluntarily collaborate on detailed rules to
implement the broad principles of EU law
- Cross-border power exchanges and the drive for an integrated EU-wide
market create pressure for supra-national regulation
- The EC has tasked the ERGEG with creating guidelines to facilitate an
efficient and fair EU-wide transmission system
- The ERGEG has called for a significant strengthening of national
regulators' independence, authority and resources
- The ERGEG has called for permanent regulatory arrangements at an EU
level
- Current transmission interconnection mechanisms are hindering energy
market integration
- Disparities in trade requirements illustrate the importance of
interconnection to achieve an efficient European power system
- The existing system of cross-border capacity allocation is hindering
EU-wide market integration
- Extensive market coupling, while improving capacity allocation
regionally, creates pressure for EU-level regulation
- Regional exchanges and market coupling efforts are helping to solve
some of Europe' s capacity allocation problems
- The leading example of market coupling is the Nord Pool
- Danish-German market coupling will come online at the end of 2007
- Dutch-Belgian-French market coupling is set to expand to include other
markets
- Through market coupling, participants rely on one country' s domestic
agencies in the absence of an EU-wide regulator
- An EU-wide regulatory agency may be established in next year' s Third
Electricity Directive
- An EU-wide regulatory agency may be established in next year' s Third
Electricity Directive
- APPENDIX
- Definitions
- Further Reading
- Datamonitor Consultancy
- Ask the Analyst
- Disclaimer
- List of Figures
- Figure 1: 2006 Net power trade requirements across Europe
- Figure 2: Relationships between interconnection volume and capacity
prices are largely random