Brussels, 14/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - Wednesday's Energy Council reached a political agreement on the proposal of a (highly technical) directive aimed at promoting cogeneration in the internal energy market. Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio welcomed the agreement while repeating that the aim of the proposal was to promote effective cogeneration.
The delegations and the Commission therefore lifted their reserve in order to allow a second reading at the European Parliament (the Parliament having voted on the proposal during first reading on Tuesday during its plenary session). The main points of the political agreement, which is to be formally approved during a forthcoming Council, are:
- The Commission should define - in accordance with comitology procedure and no later than two years after the present directive takes effect - harmonised output reference values for separate electricity and heat production. These values will serve to determine the effectiveness of cogeneration in terms of primary energy saving. The Member States that enforce the directive before the Commission has fixed these harmonised reference values should adopt national output values.
- The system of guarantee of origin, which allows the producer to certify that the electricity produced is from cogeneration, will not be set in place until the harmonised reference values are adopted by the Commission. Then, and at the latest six months after such values have been adopted, the Member States should establish guarantees on the origin of electricity from cogeneration, based on objective, transparent and non-discriminatory criteria.
- Access to the electricity network for electricity producers using cogeneration will not be the same as that foreseen for renewable energies, as the Commission had hoped. However, and subject to the Commission being notified, the Member States will be able to decide to facilitate access to the electricity grid for small cogeneration units.