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A new public consultation from the EU Commission to reform the EU electricity market

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26 January 2023

Photo credit: European Commission The European Commission has recently launched a public consultation on the reform of the European Union's electricity market design, requiring urgent adjustments to increase its resilience and to reduce the impact of gas prices on electricity bills while supporting the energy transition.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the European Union started facing a crisis of high and volatile electricity prices, and the economic burden has been pushed on to final consumers, especially to families and businesses. To move up a gear to this situation, and to guarantee direct access to affordable clean energy to all consumers, this reform aim to better protect of consumers from excessive price volatility, supporting their access to secure energy from clean sources, and making the market more resilient.

The reform involves making amendments to the EU Electricity Regulation 2019/943, Electricity Directive 2019/944 and to the EU Regulation No 1227/2011 (REMIT), and the consultation will support the Commission's work on a legislative proposal aimed to be delivered in the first quarter of this year.

"This topic is something which we have been working since several months. I exchanged with stakeholders, with ministers and European leaders and I think that the industries and all interested parties are ready to mobilize and to respond. Public consultation is part of this broad dialogue which we’ve been having and will continue to have until the proposals will appear on the table", said Tim McPhie, spokesperson for Climate Action and Energy of the European Commission, during an EC press briefing. 

The purpose of the consultation

The consultation is mainly addressed to all those who operate in the energy field, such as representatives of ministries and public authorities, national regulators, Transmission System Operators, Distribution System Operators, Market operators, companies conducting business in the energy sector, industrial consumers and associations, NGOs, etc.

All people who want to give their contribution can fulfil the online questionnaire in the consultation webpage, from the 23 January until the 13 February 2023. The consultation focuses on some main purposes:

  • Making electricity bills less dependent on short-term fossil fuel prices;
  • Boosting the deployment of renewables energies;
  • Improving market functioning to ensure security of supply;
  • Utilise alternatives to gas, such as storage and demand response;
  • Enhancing consumer protection and empowerment;
  • Improving market transparency, surveillance and integrity;
  • Ensuring that the benefits from rising renewable power deployment are brought to consumers such as large industrial consumers, SMEs and households;
  • Ensuring that any regulatory intervention in the electricity market design preserves the incentives for investments;

The European Commission will summarise the input received in a synopsis report, explaining how they have been taken into account these information. Feedback received will be published on the official website and must adhere to the feedback rules

Consultation outcome until now

Since the opening of the consultation, on the 23 January, the EU Commission received a total of 28 valid feedback. The vast majority of them came from EU citizens, (20 feedback), followed by company/businesses (5 feedback), academic/research institution (1 feedback), business association (1 feedback), other (1 feedback).

Answers came mainly from France, which submitted 9 feedback, followed by Poland (3), Spain (3), Germany (3), Italy (2), Austria (2) and by Romania, Portugal, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ireland Hungary and Greece group in with 1 answer.

Regarding the feedback of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the spokesperson for Climate Action and Energy of the European Commission, Tim McPhie, clarified to us that "anybody can contribute their views", even non-EU countries.

For any doubt about the consultation, all interested parties can contact: [email protected]

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