Most of the governments, with Spain, Italy or France amongst them, consider that the worth formation system is damaged and need a profound reform
The European Commission is on the mistaken foot within the reform of the electrical energy market. Just six months in the past, final July, he acknowledged that it was mandatory after months of denying it. Despite dragging its ft and the truth that the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, was by no means very a lot in favor of touching the European electrical energy market, liberalized within the 90s, the Commission has different sensitivities and the reform proposal will probably be offered in precept to finish of March. The Russian navy aggression towards Ukraine pulverized the European electrical energy market. The uncontrolled rise till the summer time of gasoline costs within the wholesale markets meant that Europeans needed to pay for electrical energy at traditionally excessive costs as a result of the most costly supply of electrical energy era (gasoline) units the worth at which all the opposite sources. Thus, nuclear, hydraulic or renewable power firms started to acquire historic revenue that was not primarily based on their prices however on the price of producing electrical energy from gasoline. The market was damaged.
The textual content that Brussels will current in March is a paper to be debated, not the ultimate formal proposal that ought to most likely be offered in May or June. The debate appears marked by the identical traces that marked the fixing of the cap on gasoline in December. Governments just like the Dutch or the German, which use plenty of gasoline, will not be within the enterprise of constructing large adjustments and could be content material with make-up.
But a lot of the different governments, with Spain, Italy or France amongst them, consider that the worth formation system is damaged and need a deep reform. Faced with this debate, the Spanish authorities has already permitted a doc with its personal proposals, which it has despatched to Brussels and which the newspaper ‘El País’ introduced on Tuesday. Vice President Teresa Ribera desires to affect the Brussels proposals.
The Spanish textual content proposes an in-depth reform that goes past separating the worth of gasoline from the formation of electrical energy costs. Ribera additionally desires the Government to have the ability to regulate the worth paid to hydraulic and nuclear firms for his or her electrical energy and never be set by the market. Taking into consideration that in Spain they’re already amortized and that they’ve virtually fastened manufacturing prices, the concept behind the proposal could be to pay them for electrical energy in order that they get hold of advantages, however not these of final yr, which have been solely justified by costs of gasoline that these sources don’t use.
Renewables would even have steady revenues with sufficient advantages to make it engaging to put money into them within the face of the mandatory power transition. The system would make electrical energy costs extra predictable and contracts longer-term. It would assure advantages to the electrical firms however not these of final yr.
Spain tries to affect
Spain tries to affect the longer term proposal of the European Commission, which formally doesn’t have an opinion on the matter about Spanish concepts. A spokeswoman for the European Commission responded to NIUS: “We have acquired the Spanish proposals for the reform of the European electrical energy market. These concepts, in addition to these of different events that want to contribute to the method, will feed the work to come back on the reform that’s a part of the European Commission’s work program for this yr”. If formally within the Commission there’s little to say, group sources conscious of the reform that Brussels is making ready perceive that the proposal of the Spanish Government is most, that Ribera is aware of that he is not going to get hold of all the pieces however that he desires to mark a line to defend towards future discussions. These similar sources speculate that they applaud the truth that governments information the controversy, though they clarify that they need to perceive that the European Commission should keep in mind the pursuits of the 27 member states. And they are saying that within the negotiations within the coming months, international locations with very totally different electrical techniques must come to an settlement.