Liberalization Of Electricity Markets And The Public Service Obligation In The Energy Community

This book presents the first in-depth analysis of the export of the EU electricity acquis, through the imposition of an EU-type regional electricity market (REM) in SEE within the enlargement process. Among other germane issues, the author discusses the following: the suitability of the European model of electricity markets’ liberalization for economies in transition; the use of the Public Services Obligations (PSO) to address the impact of electricity markets liberalization; the use of regulated prices and measures for granting priority rights for cross-border capacity allocation as PSOs; the Court of Justice judgement in Federutility on the sustainability of states’ protection of their different types of customers, including the large businesses; the Energy Community as a step towards a Pan-European Energy Community; the effect of simultaneous national electricity markets liberalization and cross-border regional integration of national electricity markets; and, the interplay between liberalization policy and reforms and the regulatory tools available to address their impact on provision of public services. The author’s proposed rethinking of the public services obligation offers new views on using this tool more effectively and proposes possibilities for its practical implementation through measures such as energy efficiency, allocation of interconnectors’ capacity, transparency, addressing the affordability issue and the protection of vulnerable customers. The book is remarkable for its clear analysis of the policy lessons arising from the export of the idea of liberalized energy markets, and will be welcomed by practitioners, officials, academics and others in energy law and policy for its informative and forward-looking overview of the national and cross-border reforms in the Energy Community framework.

In this important book, notable European experts in the energy field provide valuable perspectives on the principal issues raised by the liberalisation of the electricity and natural gas markets in the EU. Lawyers, business people, regulators, and policymakers who deal with matters and issues in the energy, natural resources, and environmental fields will find the details and insights presented here of great value.

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1, Oxford Brookes University, language: English, abstract: The main understanding of this work will suggest that the electricity market liberalisation need a new impulse from the biggest market players and from the regulators. The liberalisation process is defaulting; the practice and implementation should more precedes as the electricity market in the EU. The base; the Directives are settled by the Commission. The implementation by the big four companies on the market is be a long time coming. There is a wide range of different national experiences of liberalisation electricity markets in terms of the degree of the concentration of generation, the stringency of unbundling public ownership and regulatory institutions. The thesis is combining the “Third Party Access” and the “Single Buyer Model” with its empirical evidence and their implementation for Germany. However, the results of this report will reach a number of significant conclusions at the end of the thesis and will make several policy recommendations. (Blaxter,2006). It draws a distinction between observations that are relevant to the design a well functioned electricity markets. The German electricity sector has undergone considerable changes throughout the past few years (RWE, 2007). Main developments were related to liberalisation of electricity markets (generation and sell of power) and transport of electricity (grid operations), the evolving European CO2 emissions trading scheme and the promotion of renewable electricity generation.

This book is written in honour of Hans-W. Micklitz for his jubilee 70th birthday and the closure of his twelve-year term as the Chair for Economic Law at the European University Institute (EUI). Hans-W. Micklitz has gained international recognition for dedicating his extensive and fruitful career to diverse areas of law: European Economic Law, European Private Law, National and European Consumer Law, Legal Theory, theories of Private Law and Social Justice. This book is a product of the collaborative endeavors of its contributors, who all have a special connection with Hans W. Micklitz as his doctoral supervisees or research assistants. The collection of twenty chapters is to be read as the influence of Hans's dialogues in the early stage of the academic career of thirty-one young legal scholars. The volume is divided into three sections devoted to subjects that have received Hans's attention while at the EUI: EU Consumer Law (part I); European Private Law and Access Justice (part II); the CJEU between the individual citizen and the Member States (part III).

This edited volume provides a timely analysis of the European Union’s ‘privileged’ partnerships with neighbouring countries, identifying key points of comparison. It analyses which policy areas are covered and why, the reasons why a specific institutional arrangement has been chosen, the major advantages and shortcomings for both sides and how effectively the privileged partnerships have worked in practice. Drawing on a number of case studies, the book highlights critical junctures and path dependence in the EU’s external relations and examines what general lessons can be drawn regarding privileged partnerships, in particular with a view to the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU affairs, European politics, diplomacy studies, and more broadly to international relations and law.

In the course of energy liberalisation, electricity and natural gas contracts have been separated from physical delivery, and these contracts are now traded as commodities in multilateral trading facilities. Although designed to render energy trading standardised and efficient, this system raises serious questions as to whether existing regulatory and antitrust provisions are sufficient to address market abuses that cause imbalances in demand and supply. The European Union’s (EU’s) Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT), adopted to combat such market manipulation, is still lacking in significant case law to bolster its effectiveness. Addressing this gap, this invaluable book provides the first in-depth analysis of market manipulation in the energy sector, offering a deeply informed understanding of the new anti-manipulation rules and their implementation and enforcement. Focusing on practices that perpetrators employ to manipulate electricity and natural gas markets and the applicability of anti-manipulation rules to combat such practices, the analysis examines such issues and topics as the following: – factors and circumstances that determine when and what market misconduct can be subject to enforcement; – the European Commission’s criteria to determine whether a particular market is susceptible to regulation; – jurisdiction of REMIT and the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) with respect to the prohibitions of insider trading in financial wholesale energy markets; – to what extent anti-manipulation rules and EU competition law may be applied concurrently; and – types of physical and financial instruments that market participants have employed in devising their manipulative schemes. Because market manipulation is rather new in the EU context but has been prohibited and prosecuted under US law for over a century, much of the case law analysis is from the United States and greatly clarifies how anti-manipulation rules may be enforced. A concluding chapter offers policy recommendations to mitigate legal uncertainties arising from REMIT. Energy market participants, such as energy producers, wholesale suppliers, traders, transmission system operators and their counsel, and legal practitioners in the field will welcome this book’s extensive legal analysis and its clear demarcation of the objectives that REMIT seeks to accomplish with respect to energy market liberalisation.

This book examines the current state of economic regulation of renewable electricity and explores the possibilities for future harmonized EU regulation.

Because agreements concerning oil and gas upstream activities have historically been developed in common law jurisdictions, a growing concern for the petroleum industry is that a some upstream investment might not be enforceable in a civil law jurisdiction to the extent the same standards/concepts are used without any adaptation. This is why it is essential to understand and analyse how to implement a Joint Operating Agreement in civil law countries. This new edition of this unique in-depth treatment of JOAs under civil law offers a new abundance of practical considerations addressing enforceability issues in a wide variety of civil law jurisdictions likely to be conducting joint operations among two or more parties. The country-by-country analysis helps greatly in ensuring that such issues and topics as the following will be covered in a contract subject to civil law: obligations and liabilities; relationship of the parties; exclusive operations; force majeure; hardship; and host granting instrument. A useful appendix to this new edition is dedicated to a wealth of short practical comments and specific guidance. The first edition of this book presented the first JOA edited book to address the essential requirements from a large variety of civil law perspectives. This new edition offers a broader and more complete discussion of the latest legal developments with respect to the legal framework and principles underpinning JOAs in more civil law countries. It analyses the main issues that the petroleum industry and its investors might face in civil law jurisdictions with actual or potential large oil and gas reserves, and as such it is a unique and immensely valuable source of information and guidance for oil and gas law practitioners, legal counsel, and business and commercial negotiators involved in transnational operating agreements around the world.