The Electricity Directive 2019
2019/944
is a Directive in

EU law European Union law is a system of Supranational union, supranational Law, laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). It has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote ...

concerning rules for the internal market in electricity.

Background

The first Electricity Directive 96/92/EC on common rules for the internal market in electricity aimed to create an internal market for electricity. Concrete provisions were thought to be needed to ensure a

level playing field A level playing field is a concept about fairness, not that each person has an equal chance to succeed, but that they all play by the same set of rules resulting in formal equality of opportunity. In a game played on a playing field, such as rugb ...

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

and to reduce the risks of

market dominance Market dominance is the control of a economic market by a firm. A dominant firm possesses the power to affect competition and influence market price. A firms' dominance is a measure of the power of a brand, product, service, or firm, relativ ...

and

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

behaviour Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...

, ensuring non-discriminatory

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

tariffs, through access to the network based on

third-party access Third party access policies require owners of natural monopoly infrastructure facilities to grant access to those facilities to parties other than their own customers, usually competitors in the provision of the relevant services, on commercial ter ...

rights and on the basis of tariffs published prior to their

entry into force In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of th ...

, and ensuring that the rights of small and vulnerable customers are protected and that information on energy sources for electricity generation is disclosed, as well as reference to sources, where available, giving information on their

environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...

. To ensure efficient and non-discriminatory network access, the updated Directive sought to ensure distribution and transmission systems are operated through legally separate entities where vertically integrated undertakings exist. Independent management structures had to be in place between the distribution system operators, the transmission system operators, and any generation/supply companies. Legal separation does not imply a change of ownership of assets and nothing prevents similar or identical employment conditions applying throughout the whole of the vertically integrated undertakings. However, a non-discriminatory decision-making process should be ensured through organisational measures regarding the independence of the

decision-maker In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...

s responsible. The 1996 Directive was updated and replaced by the Electricity Directive 2003/54/EC, followed by Directive 2009/72/EC, and then the current Electricity Directive 2019/944.

Articles 3 to 6 require that different enterprises have rights to access infrastructure of network owners on fair and transparent terms, as a way to ensure different member state networks and supplies can become integrated across the EU. Article 8 requires that electricity or gas enterprises acquire a licence from member state authorities Article 35 requires that there is legal separation into different entities of owners of networks from retailers, although they can be owned by the same enterprise, to ensure transparency of accounting.

References

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External links

Directive (EU) 2019/944 of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity
on

EUR-Lex EUR-Lex is the official online database of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union (EU), published in 24 official Languages of the European Union, languages of the EU. The Official Journal of the European Union, Offici ...

EU legislation summary

Energy economics Electric power in the European Union European Union energy law Energy policies and initiatives of the European Union Economy of the European Union Politics of the European Union European Union directives 2003 in law 2003 in the European Union

Background

Contents

See also

References

External links