A complaint submitted by a customer of the national electricity grid due to a power cut cannot be dismissed for the sole reason that the customer’s installation is connected not to the national electricity system, but only to a regional system fed by the national system, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a judgment delivered on Thursday 8 October (Case C-360/19).
Following a large-scale power failure at the high voltage substation in Diemen, the Netherlands, Crown Van Gelder BV, which was without electricity for several hours, lodged a complaint against the national grid operator, TenneT TSO, with the Dutch Consumer and Market Authority (ACM).
On April 30, 2018, the CMA had declared the complaint inadmissible on the grounds that the company did not have a direct contractual relationship with TenneT TSO.
Crown Van Gelder BV is, in fact, not directly connected to the national network, but to a regional distribution system managed by a company separate from TenneT TSO, but supplied by the national system.
In this case, the CJEU found that the tasks and obligations incumbent on electricity transmission system operators under the European Directive 2009/72 do not only concern entities whose installations are connected to their system.
Thus, they are required, inter alia, to: - operate, maintain and develop under economic conditions secure, reliable and efficient transmission systems; - contribute to security of supply through adequate transmission capacity and system reliability; - manage electricity flows on the system, taking into account exchanges with other interconnected systems.
Consequently, the Court concluded that, on the basis of Directive 2009/72, ACM could not reject Crown Van Gelder BV’s complaint on the ground that the installation of that final customer is connected not to that transmission system directly, but only to a distribution system fed by it.
See the judgment of the Court: https://bit.ly/3nyxVA2 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)