The European Commission presented a “jumbo” legislative package last year, which features key proposals aiming to encourage consumers’ active participation in the energy market and looks at the new role of distribution operators (DSOs) in the energy transition.
Empowering consumers through better choices of energy services, allowing them to control their energy consumption and respond to price signals, as well as enabling them to produce and sell their own electricity are all key objectives, which EURELECTRIC fully supports.
However, some of the proposals put forward by the Commission deserve further clarification if the above objectives are to be truly fulfilled. This is particularly the case for the provisions on data format, dynamic pricing, smart meters and local energy communities.
“The Smart regulation for European energy consumers” event tried to answer the following questions:
- What are the activities a local energy community may carry out? What are the benefits/blockages for customer? Which are the challenges for DSOs and retailers in this new concept?
- When a consumer requests a smart meter in an area where the rollout did not take place, who will be in charge of the necessary technical and behind the scenes processes?
- Ensuring that all consumers have the right to request a dynamic electricity price contract is a legitimate call, but what happens if they are not equipped with smart meters? And what about suppliers’ commercial freedom to decide on their offers?
- Making sure that market actors have non-discriminatory access to metering data is key for competition to take place on a level playing field, but what is the rationale for setting a common data format at EU level?
The EURELECTRIC conference “Smart regulation for European energy consumers” provided an opportunity for leading industry representatives, consumers associations, regulators and policymakers to exchange views on these crucial aspects and find suitable solutions.
As the Clean Energy Package discussions have just started in the European Parliament and the Council, making sure that the proposals put forward are ambitious, sensible and realistic is in the interest of all consumers and society in general.