Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The European Commission will put forward on 8 December a proposal for regulation on energy market integrity and transparency . The purpose of the regulation will be to increase transparency on wholesale energy markets and prevent the occurence of market abuse in the form of insider trading and market manipulation . This will entail the adoption of harmonisation measures in the form of standards and oversight mechanisms . According to the European Commission, the adoption of a new regulation is justified because ' important segments of wholesale energy markets are not covered by clear rules prohibiting market abuse that makes prices higher than they should be .' The Commission takes as overall objective to increase transparency on the wholesale electricity and gas markets for the benefits of competition and of final customers , which will in particular benefit from more transparent retail price fixing mechanisms . This has become a relevant issue for the Commission as markets...

Sont parus au Journal Officiel de ce matin ( JORF No. 274, 26.11.2010 ) les deux décrets portant attribution de compétences en matière d'énergie et d'environnement au sein du nouveau gouvernement Fillon II: Décret No 2010-1443 du 25 novembre 2010 relatif aux attributions du ministère de l'écologie, du développement durable, des transports et du logement ; Décret No 2010-1447 du 25 novembre 2010 relatif aux attributions du ministère de l'économie, des finances et de l'industrie . Le premier décret porte inter alia sur l'attribution du dossier environnement, développement durable et climat, et le second sur celui de l'énergie. Cette nouvelle répartition des compétences note la fin de l'intégration institutionnelle au sein du même ministère des politiques de l'énergie et de l'environnement. Une telle évolution va l'encontre de la tendance observée au cours des dernières années en Europe d'une fusion de ces portefeuilles. Voir anisi la c...

La Commission européenne a rendu publique hier son intention de traduire la France devant la Cour de Justice de l'Union Européenne. La Commission européenne estime que la France n'a pas transposé correctement les dispositions de la Directive 2003/96 EC du Conseil du 27 octobre 2003 restructurant le cadre communautaire de taxation des produits énergétiques et de l'électricité (JO L 283, 31.10.2003, p.51). La Commission avait préalablement envoyé un avis motivé aux autorités nationales le 18 mars 2010 ( IP/10/295 ). Dans son communiqué de presse ( IP/10/1575 ), la Commission fait valoir que: ' La France disposait d'une période transitoire jusqu'au 1er janvier 2009 pour adapter son système de taxation de l'électricté dans le cadre de la directive 2003/96/EC ... Actuellement, le système francais ("taxes locales sur l'électricté") prévoit une différenciation des taxes sur une base locale, ce qui signifie qu'un consommateur qui réside dans une ...

Le projet de loi portant nouvelle organisation du marché de l'électricité en France (dite Loi NOME) a été adoptée hier 24 novembre 2010 par l'Assemblée Nationale en seconde lecture. Le compte-rendu des derniers débats parlementaires au sein de l'Assemblée est accessible ICI .

I dag, 24. november 2010, sendte Olje- og energidepartementet (OED) ut rapporten om Havvind på høring . Rapporten ble offentliggjort tidligere 8. oktober (se tidligere notate). Rapporten gjelder presis et forslag til utredningsområder og dekker flere relaterte spørsmål, blant annet: regulatoriske forhold, teknisk-økonomiske forhold, miljøbeskyttelse, arealbruksinteresser, metode for å velge arealer, og sammenligning med erfaring fra andre land. OED har identifisert 15 potensielle havvind områder lang norsk kysten . Neste etappen blir gjennomføring av strategiske konsekvensutredninger for områdene som blir valgt ut. Frist til å sende kommentarer er 31. januar 2011.

In today's official journal of the European Union (EU) ( OJ L 302 of 18.11.2010, p.1 ), was published Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1031/2010 of 12 November 2010 on the timing, administration and other aspects of auctioning of greenhouse gas emission allowances pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowances trading within the Community. The Regulation provides rules on the design of the auctions under Directive 2003/87/EC(Articles 4-7), auction calendar (Article 8-14), access to auctions (Articles 15-21), appointment of the auction bodies (auctioneer, auction monitor, auction platform) (Articles 22-35), auction market rules (market abuse, payments, transfers, delivery, management of the collateral, fees and costs of auction, market surveillance, transparency and confidentiality (Articles 36-63). Pursuant to its scope of application (Article 2), the Regulation is applicable to the ...

Le Réseau de Transport d'Electricté (RTE) , le gestionnaire du réseau de transport d'électricité en France, a rendu public ce jour la mise en place de nouvelles modalités pour l'instruction des demandes de raccordement d'installations utilisant des énergies renouvelables (ENR) . Cette mesure vise à anticiper l'évolution réglementaire annoncées par le MEEDDM et porte sur le raccordement en un point unique du réseau public de transport de différentes installations de production d'électricité ENR . Des installations de producteurs d'ENR solidairement responsables vis-à-vis de RTE Ces nouvelles modalités sont conditionnées à la signature d'une convention entre producteurs d'ENR raccordement conjointement par laquelle ils s'engagent sur deux points: établir une responsabilité solidaire vis-à-vis de RTE , ce qui entraînera les adaptations contractuelles nécessaires ; désigner un mandataire parmi eux comme représentant unique (le "producteur mand...

Amendments to Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 on conditions for access to the natural gas transmission networks have been published in today's the Official Journal of the European Union, in the form of a Commission Decision . The Decision amends Chapter 3 of Annex I to the Regulation , by detailing further transparency requirements in the access regime to the transportation system . As its title indicates, Chapter 3 relates precisely to: the definition of the technical information necessary for network users to gain effective access to the system; the definition of all relevant points for transparency requirements; and the information to be published at all relevant points and the time schedule according to which this information shall be published. In short, it details the list of information about systems and services Transmission system operators (TSOs) must provide to those seeking access (points 3.1.2, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4) and the form of the publication (point 3.1.1). Those addi...

The European Commission presented today its new energy strategy towards 2020. More analysis to come on the SEL Notebook shortly. References : Press release, European Commission, IP/10/1492 ; Full text of the new Energy Strategy Towards 2020 available on the DG TREN website .

Following the adoption of Decision C(2010) 7499 (see previous post analysing Commission's Decision), the first call for proposals under the Commission's Decision has been published in today's Official Journal ( OJ c 302, 09.11.2010, p.4 ). The full text of the call is available HERE or on the "NER 300 Website" of the Commission's DG Climate Action at: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/funding/ner300/index_en.htm . Who can submit a proposal - The project sponsor can either be a single project operator or a consortium . Level of support - Under the call, and pursuant to the Commission's Decision, the financing threshold is fixed at 50% of the relevant costs (defined in point 4.5 of the call), except when the project sponsors provides more than 50%, which involves a consequent and proportional reduction of the NER 300 financing. In order to ensure that the requested technologies adn developed and that a certain geographical balance is kept, the total amoun...

Suite au peu de modifications adoptées par la Commission des Affaires Economiques de l' Assemblée Nationale lors de son examen du texte en deuxième lecture le 3 novembre dernier, le projet de loi portant Nouvelle Organisation du marché de l'Electricité (dite Loi NOME) devrait être rapidement adopté . La discussion en séance publique aura lieu le 17 novembre prochain.

The French Energy Regulator ( Commission de Regulation de l'Energie , CRE) has made public today the first pillars of its strategy on smart grids. It intends to coordinate an institutional think tank on smart grids , organise public thematic debates (e.g., on electric vehicles, smart home, economic models for smart grids, supergrids, micro-grids, application to insulary areas), develop its publications , report of the international experiences , and concentrate the future national debates around a website dedicated to the the topic: http://www.smartgrids-cre.fr/ The first public event on smart grid organised by the French regulator was held in January 2010 in the form of a symposium and was followed by the publication also today of a book " L'Electricité du futur: un défi mondial " (Economica, 2010). The press file released today by CRE introduces the main elements of the smart grid concept.

The Government of India organised the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference (DIREC) 2010 on 27-29 October 2010 . The theme of the conference was 'Up-scaling and Mainstreaming Renewables for Energy Security, Climate Change and Economic Development.' The support organisation for the conference, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century ( REN 21 ), has just published the outcomes of the conference. The institutional framework of the IRECs - DIREC 2010 is a follow-up event of an initiative created in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The previous International Renewable Energy Conferences (IRECs) were hold in Washington in 2008 (WIREC), Beijing in 2005 (BIREC) and Bonn in 2004 (Bonn "Renewables2004"). The IRECs are organised around different sessions that refelct the diversity of the participants: ministerial level plenary sessions, interactive ministerial sessions; interactive stakeholder sessions; joint min...

Commission Decision 2010/670/EU of 3 November 2010 has been published in the OJ of 6 November, L 290, p.39. The decision lays down the criteria and measures for the financing of commercial demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and innovative renewable energy technologies (RES) . The adoption of such criteria was a requirement under Article 10a(8) of Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading with the Community (EU ETS Directive), as amended. It also answers the demand made by the European Council of June 2008 to establish a mechanism for the public and private investments in the construction and operation by 2015 of up to 12 CCS demonstration plants . In particular, Commission Decision answers the requirement of Article 10a(8) of Directive 2003/87/EC to adopt rules and criteria for the selection and implementation of the above mentionned projects, based on the revenues of the sale of 300 million allowances from the...

The 4th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) is going to be held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from 10 to 11 November . The GFMD is "a voluntary, informal, non-binding and government-led process" that is opened to all members and observers of the United Nations (UN) to discuss issues of migration anf development, through a better understading of the challenges faced and the sharing of experiences in order to reach "practical and actional-oriented outcomes." The GFMD has not highly structured functioning rules, but operates on the basis of some Operating Modalities . The theme of the Mexico meeting has been defined as "Partnerships for migration and human development: shared prosperity - shared responsibility." The three Roundtables will focus on: (1) the partnerships for migration and development: partnerships for more regular and protected migration, joint strategies to address irregular migration; (2) human mobility and human development:...