Regulators promote flexibility and support the creation of a single EU DSO entity: new opportunities for aggregators

The European Energy Regulators, in the Regulatory White Paper on Facilitating Flexibility, call for a holistic approach to support market flexibility, and for flexibility to support network operation.

The second joint ACER-CEER White Paper of the series of  Regulatory White Papers on the Clean Energy legislative proposals, aimed at deepening understanding is now available for download.

In the Facilitating Flexibility White Paper, European Energy Regulators support the following aspects of the Commission’s Clean Energy proposals:

• The use of flexibility by Distribution System Operators (DSOs) to manage the distribution system and minimise costs;
• The requirement for DSOs to report on the use of alternatives to system expansion in managing the network, e.g. in their network development plans;
• The establishment of a single EU DSO entity.
• European Energy Regulators see scope for improvement in the following areas to the effect that:
• A holistic approach is provided including a requirement that all consumers, including aggregated, should have the opportunity to participate in all relevant arrangements for valuing flexibility;
• Member States shall enable independent aggregation unless a national implementation assessment suggests an alternative that better serves system efficiency and can be implemented effectively;
• Where an independent aggregation model is implemented, Member States shall ensure that:
  • market access by independent aggregators is not foreclosed by suppliers to the consumer detriment;
  • arrangements provide for payment for resold energy (‘compensation’);
• TSOs and DSOs are required to coordinate with each other;
• DSOs are adequately unbundled in order to perform new tasks in a neutral manner.

 

Read the full paper here

24 May 2017