The Electricity Market Seminar Focused on the Responsibilities of the Parties in the Open Electricity market

Yesterday’s Energy Law Seminar on the regulators of the EU and Estonian electricity markets focused on the effects of EU policy and the roles and responsibilities of the different parties involved. The key to a smoothly functioning electricity market was identified as close cooperation and good information exchange between all parties.

The second seminar of the series gave an overview of the EU institutions and the parties involved in the Estonian electricity market, and explained the division of aims, functions and tasks between the different regulators. The presentation by Ingrid Arus, head of Elering’s electricity markets department, discussed the operations of ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, which covers Europe including Estonia, and other partnership networks covering the Baltic and Nordic regions. Arus said that cooperation is very important in all the preparatory processes that will affect the functioning of the open electricity market. This covers everything from legislation drawn up by government and the debates around it, to mutual exchanges of information. “The changeover to the open electricity market will need to be well supported by thorough preparation, cooperation between all parties and increased awareness. The most important is to understand who is responsible for what, how legislation is made at EU-level and how the principles that are agreed are turned into Estonian law. It is also important for market participants to know who to turn to when necessary,” she explained.

Moonika Kukke from law firm Glimstedt described the contribution of the various parties to the design of energy policy, the formulation of legislation and the operation of supervision. Kaspar Endrikson from the Competition Authority spoke of the importance of supervision and the role of the authority in the open market. The presentation highlighted three major points that are particularly watched in the open market: grid access must be non-discriminatory, cross-subsidies must be prevented, and network fees must be justified.

Member states of the European Union opened their electricity markets for all business consumers in 2004, and for domestic consumers in 2007. Estonia was the only country to receive a derogation to open its market later, so that 35% was opened last year and the rest will follow in 2013. The aim of the series of seminars organised by Elering and Glimstedt is to help prepare market participants for the full opening of the electricity market in 2013.

The presentation by Ingrid Arus is available here (only in Estonian).