Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Department has launched today a public consultation as to the draft regulation concerning the transport of carbon dioxide and the use of subsea reservoirs on the continental shelf for its storage .    The consultation papers, including the draft regulation (in Norwegian), are available on the website of the Ministry .   Deadline to submit contribution : 25 May 2014   See previous note on the entry into force and deadline for transposition of Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide ( CCS Directive ) into the national legislation of the EEA countries on 1 June 2013 .

Commission Regulation (EU) No 312/2014 of 26 March 2014 establishing a Network Code on Gas Balancing of Transmission Network has been published in the EU Official Journal (OJEU L 91 of 27.03.2014, p.15). The text of the regulatuin is available on EUR-Lex.   The Commission Regulation will rapidly be commented on this blog.

Three new public procurement directives are published in today's Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU L 094 of 28.03.2014). These new directives form the new legal basis for EU public procurement and concession contracts legislation (link included): Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the award of concession contracts Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC Directive 2014/25(EU of the European Parliament and of the COuncil of 26 February 2014 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC The new rules have been formally approved on 15 January 2014  after that an agreement was reached in June 2013. More on the review process which conducted to the adoption of the new rules on the European Commission website .

I answered some questions on the possible effects of the draft EU state aid guidelines for energy and environment (document leaked a couple of days before) on the green certificates scheme in Norway and Sweden. The article (in Norwegian) was published on 20 March 2014 by Montel. Article: "EU-forslag vil neppe berøre elsertmarkedet" , Montel, 20.03.2014, available for free here .

    Read my comment on the recent state aid practice of the European Commission in the energy sector in Montel article "State-aid rules to give Brussels new muscles" . Available on http://www.montel.no/  (only for Montel subscribers for the moment).

The Norwegian magazine Teknisk Ukeblad asked for my opinion on the conclusions delivered by Advocate General Bot in Case Ålands Vindkraft AC vs. Energimyndighten ( Case C-573/12 ), which relates to access to national support schemes in favour of renewable energy generation. For a review of the conclusions, see previous post on that blog. The article (in Norwegian) is available online HERE . (" Alle nasjonale støtteordninger for fornybar energi kan være ulovlige, ifølge EU-domstolen ", 11.03.2014)

The European Commission made public yesterday its antitrust decision in two cases involving European power exchanges . The first decision is adopted against two of the major spot power exchanges in Europe: Nord Pool Spot (Norway) and EPEX Spot (EPEX, France) . The two exchanges have been fined € 5 979 000 in total (€ 2 328 000 for Nord Pool Spot, € 3 651 000 for EPEX) for having agreed not to compete with one another for their spot electricity trading services in the European Economic Area (EEA) in the period 2011-2012 in the relation to the establishment of a joint IT system platform for cross border trading . The second decision concerns the Romaninan Power Exchange OPCOM which has been fine € 1 million for abusing its dominant position in the Romaninan market by putting extra-barriers for foreign traders for entering the market. ons in