Brussels, 15/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The redesign of the electricity market of the EU must be guided by market-oriented and long-term measures to ensure that the supply of electricity is balanced against distortions and to better integrate renewables in the market, the committee on energy of the European Parliament stresses in its draft report on the reorganisation of the energy market. This was drafted by Werner Langen (EPP, Germany) and amended in a vote on Tuesday 14 June, and aims to feed into a Commission proposal in the autumn.
In the view of the MEPs, any measure taken by the member states to ensure that electricity supply responds to medium- and long-term demand must be designed with a view to cross-border cooperation. Measures of this kind which are purely national and not based on the market are incompatible with the principles of a single energy market and will lead to market distortions, indirect subsidies for mature technologies and high costs to end users, meaning that they are not the best options.
According to the energy committee, cross-border capacity mechanisms should be authorised only when the following criteria is met: - the need is confirmed by a detailed regional adequacy analysis of the production and supply situation carried out at regional level and any situation of congestion identified cannot be eliminated through other, less binding, measures, such as a strategic reserve; - there is no possible alternative measure that is less costly and less market-intrusive; - the design of the capacity mechanisms is market-based; - their design includes rules to ensure that capacities are allocated sufficiently in advance in order to provide adequate investment signals to less polluting plants; - sustainability and air quality rules are incorporated.
Furthermore, the MEPs call for stable and cost-effective renewable support schemes for long-term investment, that should be adaptive in the short term and tailored to national needs and circumstances, whilst allowing the gradual phasing-out of subsidies for mature renewable technologies.
Finally, stressing that the member states must meet specific quantitative objectives for the share of renewables in final energy consumption by 2020 irrespective of the market situation, the MEPs stress the importance of promoting renewables through policies that focus on competition and cost efficiency, highlighting the importance of the EU ETS.
The Langen report is expected to be put to the vote of the September plenary session. Following its initiative to redesign the electricity market, which was presented in the framework of its first raft of measures for the Energy Union adopted in July 2015 (see EUROPE 11356), the Commission is to present a legislative proposal in the second half of 2016. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)