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ACER and ENTSO-E announced today that the feedback received from EU electricity stakeholders will soon be channelled through three specific committees, one per family of codes (Market Codes, Operational Codes and Connection Codes). The committees, chaired by the Agency, will engage interested parties. Relevant European associations, in particular, are envisaged to play an active role in the process.
The initiative comes from the evaluation of the results of a public consultation1 launched by the Agency and ENTSO-E at the end of last year on how to ensure effective stakeholder participation in the forthcoming Network Code (NC) implementation process. ACER will publish a call in July for interested parties to join the Market Stakeholder Committee, which is expected to meet for the first time in September.
In their draft Terms of Reference2 , both the Agency and ENTSO-E acknowledge the importance of the challenge for the European electricity sector to ensure implementation and compliance with the NCs across Europe, emphasising the importance of effective stakeholder engagement for the overall success of the NC implementation process. The European Stakeholder Committees (ESCs) shall in particular contribute to:
- monitoring the NC implementation process3;
- achieving a more informed decision-making process for the methodologies and rules still to be developed.
”ACER, ENTSO-E, Nominated Electricity Market Operators (NEMOs) and other parties responsible for the NC implementation are committed to collaborate in an open, transparent and timely manner within the new committees”, according to the terms of reference. The Agency and ENTSO-E are also ready to enhance stakeholder engagement both at regional and national level through their constituencies in the Member States.
Background
- The Terms of Reference derive from the feedback collected through the joint public consultation which ran from 12th December 2014 to 23rd January 2015, seeking reactions for additional stakeholder engagement in the implementation process as proposed in the consultation document.
- This will not replace the obligation for general public consultations foreseen by the draft Network Code.
- The Evaluation of Responses to the joint public consultation summarises the main issues raised by 33 respondents (i.e. key European energy organisations and a range of stakeholders from various EU Member States); the importance of a neutral Chair in the stakeholder engagement process, the necessary coordination among the ESCs and expertise of the ESCs’ sub-structures, the importance of ensuring national/regional engagement and assurance to all interested parties of full transparency of the stakeholder engagement process, as well as full access to the relevant documents published on the IT platform.
