ACER, Energy Community to tighten cooperation on electricity market coupling

The Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, ACER, and the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) as well as the national regulatory authorities agreed to intensify cooperation and share knowledge on a regular basis, the Energy Community said in a press release.

A few days ago the ACER, and the Energy Community Regulatory Board organised in Rome a joint workshop to discuss the status of the implementation of the EU Regulation on capacity allocation and congestion management. The aim of the workshop was to tighten cooperation with the national regulators of the Energy Community in this area.

“If electricity market coupling is supposed to successfully happen in South East Europe, we have to look beyond the borders of European Member States and make sure that our partners from neighbouring Energy Community Contracting Parties are involved and informed as early as possible”, Alberto Pototschnig, Director of the ACER said.

EU Regulation on capacity allocation and congestion management designs rules for coupling electricity markets. Although this EU Regulation is yet to be made binding in the Energy Community, several voluntary market coupling projects have been proposed under the Western Balkan 6 Initiative with the support of the Energy Community Secretariat

“If we want to achieve an efficient mechanism for cross-border trading and a better integration of markets, a close coordination between ACER and ECRB is crucial in this respect. I, therefore, welcome the newly established cooperation format“, ECRB President Giorgi Pangani noted.

Energy Community Secretariat Director Janez Kopač said that he is pleased to see that ACER and ECRB including the national regulatory authorities agreed to intensify cooperation in this sector.

In December last year, the Energy Community launched regional projects for technical assistance to support day-ahead market coupling and cross-border balancing in the Western Balkans. The projects are expected to be finalized by end 2018.