Focus on electricity disclosure and renewables
The Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) has opened a public consultation on "green" electricicty. The contributions, once collected and reviewed, will serve as direct input to the draft CEER's recommendation on the manner electricity is produced, also known as "electricity disclosure", and in particular renewable electricity disclosure. Electricity dislosure can take several forms, including by contract, statistics or certificates (so-called guarantees of origin under European law). The purpose of the recommendations is to make disclosure of "green" electricity "more transparent, resistant to fraud , reliable and consistent."
Why recommendations on green electricity disclosure
A reliable electricity disclosure system can be a crucial component of support schemes for electricity consumption based on RES, disclosure or RES target compliance. In a liberalised electricity market, a reliable electricity disclosure system will increase the confidence of final customers when they buy a green electricity offer from their provider.
By adopting the draft recommendations, CEER aims to "enpower electricity customers by providing them with adequate, reliable and consistent information and by developing a reliable, trustworthy and transparent disclosure system and pushing forward the integration of the European electricity market."
One can wonder whether CEER has decided to deal with this topic now. According to the organisation, it is primarily motivated by the desire to strengthen customers' position in energy policy development. Secondly, CEER regards the topic as being timely with regards to the latest development in the renewables sector. CEER's recommendations have to be seen as a direct response "to the European Council COnclusions on renewable energy of 3 December 2012 where a need for a consistent application of fuel mix disclosure at EU level was identified."
The consultation in practice
To contribute to the public consultation, answer the online questionnaire on the CEER website HERE. Deadline for submission of responses: 13 February 2014
Final recommendations should be available mid- 2014.
CEER have asked the following 12 questions to stakeholders:
- Do you agree that further improvement is needed concerning the terminology that is used to inform the customer on electricity offers based on renewables and to promote these offers in marketing?
- Do you agree that all price comparison tools should provide customers with an overview of electricity products, including specific information on the origin of the electricity that will be supplied?
- Do you agree that NRAs (or other competent body) should develop a harmonised format on how information concerning the origin of electricity is displayed and should specify the level of detail required on electricity bills for this information?
- Do you agree that two levels of information should be provided to customers? Complementing the bill, additional information such as the geographic origin, the technology and the product mix could be made available on the website of the supplier. In that case, a reference on the bill should draw customers’ attention to this additional information.
- Do you support the idea that if a supplier also publishes the product mix on the bill for some customers, the publication of the product mix should be done consistently for all of its customers in order to minimise the risk of “double counting” within one company?
- Do you agree that the publication of an annual disclosure report by NRAs (or other competent bodies) is a good practice?
- Do you agree that further harmonisation of the existing disclosure systems on a European level necessary?
- Do you agree that GOs should be used as a common and reliable basis for all disclosure systems?
- Do you agree that the issuing of RES-GOs should be mandatory for all electricity produced with renewable sources?
- Do you agree that issuing of GOs should be extended to all sources of electricity to make the basis for the disclosure system more consistent and reliable, but also to provide opportunities for market offers for electricity based upon specific non-renewable sources in a trustworthy manner? Should this be mandatory or voluntary?
- Do you agree that the integration of electricity markets at European level should ideally be accompanied by actively developing a European RES-GO market?
- Do you agree that when informing customers about their energy, RES-support schemes and disclosure should be seen as separate issues with their own instruments?
- Do you feel that it is necessary to recognise all GOs for disclosure purposes, irrespective of whether GOs come from supported or not-supported electricity?
- Do you agree that “green” power quality labels should mandatorily be using GOs as their unique tracking mechanism?
- Do you agree that “green” power quality labels should mandatorily be using GOs as their unique tracking mechanism?
Comments