Renewable integration high priority for electricity market - Eurelectric
Electricity sector lobby group Eurelectric has encouraged stakeholders at the European Electricity Regulatory Forum in Florence, Italy, which was held on 22 and 23 May, to "engage in a comprehensive market integration process".
Specifically, the organisation outlined three priorities for the European electricity sector:
creating a level playing field among power-generation technologies - including the need to integrate renewables;
development of integrated intra-day and balancing markets;
and promoting greater transparency and the involvement of market participants.
Eurelectric stressed the importance of integrating renewable power, and called for a comprehensive strategy to be formulated in order to help facilitate it. This integration, the lobby argued, would help solve problems such as loop flows (congestion management problems at interconnected borders), which are prevalent in central and eastern Europe.
In a presentation, Eurelectric said renewable producers needed to react to market price, bid into the market and should also comply with the same rules as other producers, especially with regard to grid connection, scheduling and balancing rules.
The phase-out of renewable subsidies post-2020 would further boost the compatibility with electricity markets, the organisation argued.
The lobby also suggested that Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms (CRMs) could be introduced where generation adequacy was at risk. However, Eurelectric warned this should be introduced on a regional level or in coordination with neighbouring countries and be consistent with market integration in order to avoid distortions.
But CRMs should be phased out once the market delivers the appropriate investment incentives itself. The group suggested the European Commission should draw up a set of minimum harmonisation requirements on an EU level.
Eurelectric also called on network operators and power exchanges to speed up northwestern European (NWE) Day-ahead price coupling, and increase the involvement of market players. Emphasising that the NWE intra-day model would not be delivered until 2014, it urged participating power exchanges to accelerate the establishment of an interim model, which ought to go live as soon as possible.
It also called for greater transparency in the NWE market, pointing out that the All Party Cooperation Agreement had still not been circulated to market parties.
Eurelectric also suggested that market participants play a greater role in drafting network codes - for example, as an official advisory body to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) stakeholder group. RB
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