Member States to Coordinate Energy Policies Starting at Regional Level
with ENTSO-E Commitment to Contribute
19 March 2015
Ahead of
today’s European Council’s discussions on the Energy Union Pierre Bornard,
ENTSO-E’s Chairman of the Board insisted on the need to speed up energy policy
coordination among Member States, to start with the regions.
‘In order to
achieve Europe’s ambitious targets on renewables, climate, energy efficiency
but also on competitiveness and security of supply, Member States will have to
acknowledge the interdependence of their energy policy decisions and
co-ordinate them much better at least at a regional level,’ he said. ‘If we are
really serious about putting the citizen at the core of the Energy Union we
have to be faster and more ambitious in our actions’. ‘Member States have indeed
the right and responsibility to ensure their security of supply and to make
energy mix decisions at a national level, within the framework of the Internal
Energy Market. However, power does not stop flowing at Member States’ borders
and security of supply is achieved with mutual help and primary resource
pooling’, Bornard continued.
Regionalisation,
which features strongly in the Commission’s Energy Union Communication, can be
a fast track towards an integrated electricity market. ‘This means that energy
policy choices are coordinated on such issues as system adequacy on a regional
level, flexibility to balance renewables, capacity remuneration mechanisms,
generation reserves and back-up capacity’, continued ENTSO-E’s Chairman of the
Board. ‘All of these decisions have important cross-border impacts and could,
if not co-ordinated, result in market fragmentation and thus higher prices,
elevated risks and less choice for the 500 million European citizens.’
The
implementation of regionally coordinated system adequacy would be an important
step forward and would anchor the role of ENTSO-E’s Scenario Outlook &
Adequacy Forecast and seasonal outlook assessments as Member States’ reference
point for defining policies related to security of supply and energy-mix
strategies. This could, if necessary, be addressed through a review of the
Security of Supply Directive 2005/89/EC.
In its paper
on the Energy Union Strategy, ENTSO-E highlights the importance of a sound
regulatory framework of the policies related to the energy mix as a
prerequisite for efficient planning and realisation. ‘And there is a need to
strengthen ACER, which might require increased resources to ensure the
implementation of the network codes, improve the cooperation between national
regulators and create an adequate and coherent pan-European regulatory
framework.’ Bornard stressed further.
The
Commission’s Energy Union paper recognises also the increasing importance of
ENTSO-E. TSOs offer solutions on a national, regional and pan-European
level. They provide objective
assessments on the impacts, opportunities and risks to power system operation
of different policy options and thus help ensure that the transition will be
smooth and cost effective.
Last but not
least and because power does not stop at the EU’s borders, cooperation with the
European neighbours, and here in particular with the Energy Community but also
Turkey is high on ENTSO-E’s agenda. In addition to the fact that TSOs from
almost all the South-East European Contracting Parties of the Energy Community
are ENTSO-E members, on 15 April ENTSO-E will sign the Long-Term Agreement on
synchronisation with the Turkish TSO TEIAS. Reliability, sustainability, and
connectedness are the contributions ENTSO-E will make to turn the Energy Union
from promise to practice.