EC Beefs up Energy Regulation Coordinator

A European Commission proposal to beef up the Agency for the Co-operation of Energy Regulatiors (Acer) has met with approval more than two years after being put forward, it said December 11.

It described it as "another important achievement in our transition to a clean and secure energy system. Acer will have an enhanced role in the energy market and in the area of security of supply. This regulation will adapt the Agency's competences to the new challenges the electricity sector is facing, for example in the context of increased regional co-operation".

Acer's main role is confined to co-ordination, advising and monitoring. Regulatory oversight remains fragmented, leading to a risk of diverging decisions and unnecessary delays, the EC said, and while Acer will retain its role as coordinator of the action of national energy regulators, it will gain new ones in areas where fragmented national decisions of cross-border relevance would lead to problems for the internal energy market. These are mainly in electricity, rather than gas.

Acer will have oversight on the future regional co-ordination centres where transmission system operators will be able to decide on issues where fragmented national actions could negatively affect the market and consumers. The proposed approach will also streamline regulatory procedures by giving Acer the right to approve on its own, without the need for separate approvals by all national regulators. 

The proposal also contains further provisions that, together with those proposed in the other elements of the Clean Energy Package, will place consumers at the heart of the energy market.

Following this provisional political agreement, the text of the regulation will have to be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council. Once endorsed by both co-legislators in the coming months, it will be published and take effect from that date, the EC said. It had initially proposed the regulation in November 2016.