CEER has launched a public consultation on data management for better retail market functioning. The consultation paper (in the form of draft advice) sets out how data management should be developed, with and without smart metering and smart grids. Unsurprisingly (given CEER’s 2020 Vision for Europe’s energy customers) it has has a strong focus on the customer perspective. For more on customers and retail energy markets, save the date of 18th June for the annual CEER customer conference.
The feature article below examines whether the current methodologies for assessing generation adequacy in Europe are fit for purpose, an issue of relevance to security of supply. What happens in Europe's eastern neighborhood matters greatly to the EU. Launched in 2009, the Eastern Partnership is a joint initiative between the EU and six partner countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. See the International section below on how CEER, with the support of the European Commission, is deepening relations with the regulatory authorities of the Eastern Partnership countires.
This month, April, promises to be a busy month for events with a CEER public hearing (28 April) on regulating the quality of distribution services, followed by a joint CEER-ACER event (the next day) to launch the consultation on ACER’s Green Paper “Energy Regulation a Bridge to 2025”. Preparations are well underway for the Madrid Forum (in May) with CEER intendng to present work on storage, LNG and inputs to the ACER Gas Target Model.
Assessing Generation Adequacy - are current methodologies in Europe fit for purpose?
What is generation adequacy and how it is relevant to security of supply? With risk of oversimplification, generation adequacy is about the ability of an electricity system to meet future demand. If supply is inadequate to meet demand, steps can be taken to ensure consumers are not left without electricity. Adequacy outlooks are essential tools to envisage or drive investment and possible public interventions. Generation adequacy assessment is thus highly relevant to key policy decisions such as public interventions on grounds of security of supply. With the EU energy objective of a secure, sustainable and competitive internal (EU) energy market energy (IEM), it is clear that security of supply is no longer exclusively a national issue but should be considered as a regional and pan-European issue
So how is generation adequacy assessed in Europe? ENTSO-E publishes an annual pan-European outlook of adequacy (the ENTSO-E System Outlook and Adequacy Forecast) with mid and long-term horizons. In an effort to improve transparecy of he current approaches to national generation adequacy assessments, CEER has publishes the "CEERAssessment of electricity generation adequacy in European countries".
What’s in the CEER report? The review of national approaches to generation adequacy looks at the different parties responsible for assessing generation adequacy, the extent of analyses and the different calculations they use, and assumptions on load, generation and adequacy forecasts.
Main Findings: - In most countries, transmission system operators (TSOs) are the bodies responsible for monitoring and reporting on generation responsibilities. Other responsible insitutions are national regulatory authorities (NRAs) or governments. - The methodologies for assessing Generation Adequacy differ greatly depending on the targeted timeframe. Demand response is generally largely not included as a separate factor in load forecasts. Regarding generation forecasts, counties take projected investment into account, sometimes with very heterogenous sources and assumptions. Decommisssioning (and mothballing) of investments is not systematically taken into account. CEER’s Key Recommendation on Generation Adequacy - CEER’s believes that it is of utmost importance to improve current and future generation adequacy and risk assessments at national, regional and European levels; notably, to ensure more transparency and to address the need for flexible resources, taking into account the dynamic behaviour of variable generation but also the benefits of the IEM through interconnectors.
How is this CEER report relevant? CEER’s stock-take of existing national practices on generation adequacy assessments is an important input to the current work at EU level to establish best practices and a common base for assessment methodologies and data use across Member States.
CEER is involved in the Electricity Coordination Group (established by the European Commission and comprising representatives of NRAs, Ministries and ENTSO-E) sub-group work on creating a common methodology for generation adequacy assessments. A critical issue is the need to consider intermittent renewable generation (such as wind) and the treatment of interconnections in a more consistent way. A suite of common indicators for use at Members State and EU level would ensure a common language across Europe of what is being assessed. But indicators alone would not be sufficient for a harmonised EU assessment methodology, which would also require a clear EU-wide institutional setting to ensure political endorsement of data and methodologies for policy decisions making at EU level.
CEER has long advocated the need to define a coherent policy framework to favour a more transparent and coordinated approach to generation adequacy and to ensure that any public intervention in this regard is well designed and effective (see the CEER views on the Commission’s Public Interventions Package: Delivering the internal electricity market, December 2013 and the CEER response to European Commission public consultation on generation adequacy, capacity mechanisms and the internal market in electricity, February 2013).
Public Consultations & Events
• Data management for better retail market funcitoning(Closing 23/05/2014) Visit our websiteto be updated on our future consultationsandevents.
Publications
• CEER assessment of electricity generation adequacy in European countries.
International
CEER’s international strategy efforts recognises that the EU’s policy towards its Eastern neighbours is extremely important for the EU's external relations and energy security in particular. CEER's activities in this region have become a permanent pillar in the Eastern Partnership, helping to build stronger relations between Europe and its Eastern Partners every year. For the third year running, CEER will host (with the support of the European Commission) an Eastern Partnership workshop with the regulatory authorities of the Eastern partnership countries. This year it takes place in London on (27 - 28 May) on the subject of building regional electricity markets. Further afield, preparations are well underway for the forthcoming EU-US energy regulatorys’ roundtable in Boston, USA, in May.
