Negotiators in the European Union Council of Ministers and the European Parliament made some progress on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 November on the revised regulatory framework for the EU electricity market, except for on the sensitive issue of capacity mechanisms.
As regards the proposal for a Regulation, which was discussed at length during the trilogue on Tuesday 13 November (4th trilogue), there was no breakthrough on the overriding issue of capacity mechanisms (see EUROPE 12121). The Austrian Presidency of the Council would not have made any significant concessions on this issue.
However, progress has reportedly been made on criteria to ensure that strategic reserves remain outside the market and cross-border holdings.
A compromise proposal from the European Commission provided for a transitional period during which interconnections could participate in the capacity market as an alternative to opening these markets to foreign generation capacities. It proposed several options on emission limits and European resource assessment, but EU countries failed to agree on this text on 9 November at the EU ambassadorial level. The next trilogue will take place on 5 December, with the aim of reaching a political agreement, although there is the possibility of a sixth trilogue in mid-December.
During the previous trilogue, some results had been achieved on regional cooperation.
Some progress on local energy communities and smart meters. During the trilogue on 12 November on the proposed regulation on the electricity market, the parties reportedly reached a preliminary agreement on local energy communities, which would be renamed ‘local citizen communities’, and on smart meters. Only individuals could participate in the governance of these communities, not legal entities.
The draft compromise on smart meters provides that 80% of consumers will have to be equipped with smart meters by 2024 in countries where they have not yet been installed. In countries which already have them, modernisation of meters will be mandatory twelve years after the entry into force of the Directive. There would have been no progress on the delicate subject of regulated tariffs. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)