Conditions d'Accès aux Réseaux de Transport de Gaz Naturel et Différentiation de Tarification: Conclusions de l'Avocat Général

Voici une décision encore plus attendue en matière de marché intérieur de l'énergie. L'Avocat Général Trstenjak a rendu hier, 28 september 2010, ses conclusions dans l'Affaire C-241/09 Fluxys SA contre Commisison de régulation de l'électricité et du gaz (CREG) (à lire ICI).

La question de droit faisant l'object de cette demande préjudicielle introduite par la Cour d'Appel de Bruxelles, rapportée ici de manière succinte en attendant la décision, est la suivante:

Les dispositions de la Directive 2003/55/CE concernant les règles communes pour le marché intérieur du gas natural et du Règlement (CE) No.1775/2005 concernant les conditions d'accès aux réseaux de transport de gaz naturel s'opposent-elles à une loi nationale qui prévoit, au sein de la réglementation pour les tarifs de transport de gaz naturel, des régimes distincts, l'un pour le gaz naturel distribué ou fourni dans un Etat membre, dits tarifs d'acheminement (dans le cas d'espèce la Belgique), et l'autre pour le gaz naturel dont le destinataire se situe hors du territoire national, dits tarifs de transit.

Review under State Aids Rules of the Extension of Preferential Electricity Tariff Schemes for Certain Energy-Intensive Industry: Opinion of the AG

On 23 September 2010, Adovate General Jääskinen delivered his opinion in Case C-194/09 P Alcoa Trasformazioni Srl., which is currently pending before the European Court of Justice. The central question of the case to know in which circumstances a measure which was originally found not to constitute state aid in the sense of Article 107 TFEU by the European Commission can be regarded as a different measure when the national authorities make certain modifications to the scheme and extend its duration (see points 23-25). The full text of the opinion is available HERE.

Procedure: the case is an appeal by Alcoa Trasformazionin Srl that seeks the annulment of the judgement of the Court of First Instance of 25 March 2009 (the General Court after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty) in Case T-332/06 Alcoa Trasformazioni v Commission and the partial annulment of Commission's Decision 2006/C 214/03 initiating the procedure of Article 108.2 TFEU concerning State aid C 36/06 (ex. NN 38/06) concerning the preferential electricity triff to energy-intensive industries in Italy, in so far as the decision relates to the electricity tariffs applicable to two primary aluminium plants owned by Alcoa (as reported in point 1 of the opinion).

The factual elements of the case reminds an earlier decision from the General Court delivered in August and reported on that blog: Case T-62/08 Thyssenkrupp Acciai Speciali Terni SpA v. European Commission, although the procedure is slightly different.

Going Offshore: Scotland's Ambition to Become a Net Exporter of Renewable Energy

The First Minister of the Scottish government, Alex Salmond, made an interesting statement along the speech he hold today, talking at the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference. He mentioned the commitment of its government to cut CO2 emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, including a target of at least 80 per cent of electricity demand based on renewable energy. "Scotland is committed to be a major exporter of low carbon electricity and to decarbonise our electricity supply by 2030, through a combination of renewables and clean fossil fuels utilising carbon capture and storage" he said. Indeed, Scotland is deemed to detain a quarter of Europe's capacity in offshore wind and tidal electricity generation.

Ambitious predictions. Route Map in hands. The conference was the occasion to release the Scottish Offshore Wind Industry Route Map. The Route Map defines five areas of priority: infrastructure, supply chain and innovation, grid, managing the environment, skills, and finance. Reference should also be made to an Offshore Valuation report that wonders what is the value of the UK's offshore renewable energy resources.

How will that be financed? In terms of support, the Renewables Obligation (RO) remains the main instrument in the UK, i.e. a market-based instrument involving a buy-out fund. Scotland has implemented a similar mechanism, the so-called Renewables Obligation Scotland (ROS). ROS has been in force since April 2002 and is running in parallel to the others RO in the UK (England and Wales, Northern Ireland), although connected to some point. See Renewables Obligation website of the UK government. However, it is doubtful that this will suffice and the Firt Minister calls upon major private investments, underlying the green winfalls to come in return. The Offshore Valuation report calls for a mix of financing and a stronger involvement of the state.

In that sense, the Offshore Valuation Report have advanced some proposals in terms of financing:

"This technology maturity should accompanied by a maturity in the financing mechanisms for offshore renewables. Development and construction costs will be financed by a combination of developer balance sheets, third party equity, and potentially public private programme structures (PPPs) but once sites have been in operation for a period of time it should be possible to refinance with a much greater share of lower cost debt (for example from pension funds or long term infrastructure investors). This will then release equity for developers to invest in subsequent projects.

Not all of the risks associated with offshore renewables will decrease over time. ...

Long term finance

Institutional UK pension fund assets were worth approximately £1,200 billion at the end of 2009. If an amount equal to one percent of this was allocated to offshore renewables each year, it could finance over 200GW of capacity by 2050. The return on this investment ... would provide an income to UK pension funds of more than £500 billion over four decase. The lifetime of a typical offshore renewable project is also a particuarly good match for the time horizon of a pension fund investment.

The Housing Finance Corpotation (HFC) provides a working model for very low risk infrastructure finance in the UK that avoids increasing the size of the Treasury balance sheet. ... There is a parallel with the renewable energy sector in that 'energy bonds' would be backed by real assets, in this case steel, copper and conrete, and the returns would be underpinned by electricity sales - currently augmented by the government - backed Renewables Obligation.

New sources of finance.

...there also may be more direct role for government in reducing the financing risk in both the short and long term... one option is for the government to take an active role in the financing of offshore renewables ... it could be a central role for a UK Green Investment Bank.

Taking the concept of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) one step further, it could be used to open the door for ordinary people to invest in offshore renewables. Energy Bonds or Green Energy ISAs could be offered to the public through the GIB. ..." (pp.62-63)

Adaptation aux Règles de Raccordement au Réseau de Distribution pour les Energies Renouvelables en Guadeloupe

Adaptation to the Rules relative to the Connection to the Distribution Grid for Small Renewable Energy Generation Plants in the French Ultraperipheric Region of Guadeloupe - This post reviews the newly adopted derogatory regime for the connection to the grid of small renewable energy generation plants in Guadeloupe, based on a Deliberation of 20 July 2010 of the regional council.

Le Journal Officiel de ce 28 septembre 2010 reprend la Délibération du 20 juillet 2010 du conseil régional de la Guadeloupe relative au développement des installations de production d'énergie électrique d'origine renouvelable et intermittente, et établissant un dispositif particulier pour leur développement. (JORF No 0225 du 28.09.2010, p.17519.)

Un contexte particulier pour la production d'électricité verte

La production d'énergie électrique à base renouvelable représente de nombreux défis et opportunités pour cetter région francaise et ultrapérophérique de l'Union Européenne. L'indépendance énergétique est fondamentale tant d'un point de vue environnemental que pour la survie économique de l'archipel, comme rappelé par la grêve générale de janvier 2009 contre les coûts excessifs de la vie quotidienne. Au titre des défis énergétiques comptent l'exiguïté du territoire et la nécessité de maintenir les surgaces agricoles.

Base juridique et contraite des objectifs chiffrés

Cette délibération prend comme base juridique, inter alia, les dispositions de la Loi No 2009-594 du 27 mai 2009 relative au développement économique des outre-mer (Article 69) qui permettent au conseil régional de Guadeloupe de prendre, pour une durée de 2 ans à compter de sa promulgation, des règles spécifiques à cette région, "notamment en matière de développement des énergies renouvelables dans les limites prévues dans sa délibération CR/2009-269 susvisée du 27 mars 2009" (Considérant No.1). La modification du cadre réglemenaire apportée par la Délibération du 20 juillet 2010 trouve également sa justification dans la nécessité d'adopter des mesures exceptionnelles pour atteintes les objectifs fixés dans le Plan Energétique Régional Pluriannuel de prospection et d'Exploitation des Energies Renouvelables et de l'Utilisation Rationalle de l'Energie (PRERURE). Enfin, il est rappelé que la Loi Grenelle I No. 2009-967 du 3 août 2009 fixe un objectif d'autonomie de 50% d'énergies renouvelables au minimum dans la consommation finale d'ici à 2020 dans les collectivités d'outre-mer.

Le régime déragatoire mis en place en Guadeloupe pour les petites installations

Ce régime drogatoire est défini à l'Article 2 de la Délibération:

"En Guadeloupe, les installations de production visées par les dispositions du I de l'article 19 de l'arrêté du 23 avril 2008 relatif aux presceiptions techniques de conception et de fonctionnement pour le raccordement à un réseau public de distribution d'électricité en basse tension ou en moyenne tension d'une installation de production d'énergie électrique et mettant en oeuvre de l'énergie fatale à caractère aléatoire ne peuvent être déconnectées du réseau public de distribution d'électricité par le gestionnaire de réseau tant que la somme des puissance installées par de telles installations est inférieure ou égale à une puissance totale sur le territoire de:

• 17 MW pour les installations photovoltïques au sol;
• 32 MW pour les installations photovoltaïques en toiture;
• 31 MW pour les éoliennes,

et ce en dehors des cas d'intervention du gestionnaire du réseau relatifs à la sûreté du système, notamment lors de périodes perturbées (intempéries, fonctionnement en réseau séparé, phase de reconstitution du réseau ...), tel que précisé dans la document technique de référence gu gestionnaire du réseau."

Les seuils peuvent être revus sur base des informations communiquées chaque année à la région par le gestionnaire du réseau.

Une dérogation au régime général de raccordement

Les règles adoptées par ladite Délibération constituent un dérogation au régime général de raccordement au réseau de distribution constitué par:

• le Décret No. 2008-386 du 23 avril 2008 relatif aux prescriptions techniques générales de conception et de fonctionnement pour le raccordement d'installations de production aux réseaux publics d'électricité: l'Article 22 dispose que le gestionnaire du réseau peut déconnecter les installations électrique d'origine renouvelable et aléatoire (PV, éolien) de puissance Pmax d'au moins 1% de la puissance minimale transitant sur le réseau public de distribution s'il constate que la somme des puissance actives injectées par ces installations atteint 30% de la puissance active totale transitantsur le réseau.

et

• l'arrêté ministériel du 23 avril 2008 relatif aux prescriptions techniques de conception et de finctionnement de raccordement, tel que modifié par l'arrêté du 15 février 2010.

Références: EDF Archipel Guadeloupe, sites de production.

The 2011 Work Programme of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is Released

The Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) has made public on 23 September its 2011 Work Programme. The Agency, established by Regulation (EC) No. 713/2009 (OJ L 211, 14.08.2009) will become operational on 3 March 2011 with its headquarters located in Ljubljana, Slovenia (see previous post). The 2011 Work Programme will consequently guide ACER's action until December 2011.

The 2011 Work Programme focuses on the following areas (p.9):

1. Framework Guidelines for Network Codes, in the priority areas defined by the Commission, will be given the highest oriority, as they are in the critical path for the creation of the internal energy market;
2. Opinions on the compliance of Network Codes with the corresponding Framework Guidelines;
3. ACER's opinion on the draft statutes, list of members and draft rules of procedure of the ENTSOs, in order to allow these associations, which have a central role in developing Network Codes, to become fully operational;
4. Opinion on the 10-year network development plan, as greater cross-border capacity is key for a true internal energy market;
5. decisions on cross-border congestion management or TPA exemptions, upon the joint request of all the concerned NRAs or when these fail to reach an agreement.

These priorities reflect the strong emphasis on energy infrastructures that announces the forthcoming adoption of an Infrastructure Package in early 2011 by the European Commission. Network codes development, network development plans monitoring, decisionson cross-border capacity allocation and congestion management and TPA-exemptions for new infrastructures count indeed among the core functions of ACER.

From an administrtaive point of view, ACER will rapidly need to precise these core "monitoring functions". But other functions of the Agency will also need to be activated in relation to the development of the internal energy market. This will most probably take place in a second time although the first monitoring exercises should be carried out in 2011 with a "possible" completion of the first monitoring reports by the end of the year focusing on: the implementation of projects to create new interconnector capacity in electricity and gas; the level of compliance with electricity and gas regulation and related guidelines; the regional cooperation of electricity and gas TSOs; the compliance with consumer rights.

To be noted, the Work Programme contains in pages 6 to 8 a useful overview of ACER's tasks, the type of actions envisaged (opinion, monitoring, recommendation, draft guidelines, report, publication, information, consultation, decision) and the legal basis associated. A must-read for those who want to understand ACER's role.

In the mid-term, it will also be interesting to see how ACER envisages the parallel monitoring and development of guidelines for the gas and the electricity markets. The Work Programme announces a parallel track with the completion in 2011 of Framework Guidelines for Network Codes for both electricity (capacity allocation and congestion management; grid connection; operaational security) and for gas (capacity allocation mechanisms; balancing rules; harmonised transmission tariff structures; interoperability). (See p. 12)

Towards An Extended Exploitation of Norwegian Continental Shelf Petroleum Resources

Today, the Norwegian Minister for Petroleum and Energy received a report ordered earlier this year on the measures to be taken to inscrease the level of extraction of petroleum resources from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

The report, entitled "Økt utvinning på norsk kontinentalsokkel" has been prepared by a special committee on the topic (utvinningsutvalget). The report contains 44 proposals to be ranged in 5 categories:

1. the regulatory framework;
2. costs and profitability;
3. measures affecting the competition situation on the NCS;
4. test and implementation of more technologies for an increased exploitation;
5. challenges for an increased exploitation within certain technological areas.

References: OED press release, 22.09.2010.

New EU Regulation on the Safeguard of Security of Gas Supply Adopted by the European Parliament

The European Parliament has adopted yesterday, 21 September 2010, in first reading of the codecision procedure the proposal for a regulation concerning measures to safeguard security of gas supply, so-called Security of Energy Supply Regulation that will repeal current Directive 2004/67/EC. As announced by the European Commisison in its press release (IP/10/1151), "the new legislation will stregthen the coordination between Member States and ensure that effective action will be taken in advance to prevent and mitigate the consequences of gas supply disruptions."

The text of the regulation as adopted by the Parliament is available HERE.

A summary of the regulation will be posted on that blog.

Forthcoming Conference on the Role of State-Owned Companies

On 28 September 2010 is organised in Oslo an important conference on the role of state-owned companies, in particular with respect to areas of interest for the whole society and with respect to the redistribution of their revenues. Lately, the Norwegian governement has published a proposal on state ownership. See some background parliamentary discussions HERE. See also the pages dedicated to state ownership (Norwegian version) on the government website.

The programme of the conference can be downloaded HERE.

Venue: Tuesday 28 September 2010, 9.00-12.00 am. Ballroom, Nedre Vollgate 11, Oslo, Norway. Organisers: Concerned Scientists Norway and WWF.

Short description from the organisers (in Norwegian):

"Statskontrollerte selskaper - flaggskip for fremtiden? Norske statskontrollerte selskaper har vært sentrale i arbeidet med å løfte Norge fra et fattig jordbruksland til et av verdens mest velstående og beste land å bo i. Underveis har også selskapene selv blitt store og mektige og skal gi overskudd for staten som aksjonær - men vil vi noe mer med dem? Hvilken rolle skal disse selskapene spille i frentiden? ..." read more HERE.

Signature of the Arctic border Agreement between Norway and Russia

The governments of Norway and Russia have announced on 6 September that the historical agreement on the territorial delimitation of jurisdiction between the two countries in the Barents Sea and the Polar Sea will be signed on 15 September 2010 in Murmansk. The prime minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, and the president of the Russian federation, Dmitrij Medvedjev, will be present for the signature undergone by their ministers for foreign affairs.

The process for negotiation has been suprisingly rapid compared to the numerous years of jurisdictionnal dispute for the area. Many interests have been pushing for a rapid agreement, including cooperation for the exploitation of fishing resources and the management of petroleum resources. Those two areas of cooperation will give rise to two separate international treaties, which will clarify cooperation and responsibilities in the exploitation of shared deposits in particular. The area in question equals to 176.000 km2, and will be shared approximately equally.

More than an end point, the international agreement constitutes the starting point for the expansion of economic activities in the area. This will require close cooperation and precaution for the best and most environmental friendly exploitation of the local resources. The two countries have been cooperating since 1988 on the careful management on the region, including on aspects related to: environmental protection, prevention of environmental pollution including waste pollution, nuclear safety, and climate change (see Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Cooperation between Norway and Russia; NORUEC website). Norway has also been working ahead with a Integrated Management Plan for the Marine Resources of the Barents Sea since 2006.

The text of the agreement will be shortly after the signature presented to the two national parliamentary assemblies for ratification.

References:

• Previous post on the SEL Notebook and press release of 27.04.2010 during the visit of the Russian president to Norway;
• Press release, office of the Norwegian prime minister, 06.09.2010;
• NRK interview with the Norwegian prime minister.

Picture: NRK.no

Grid Capacity and Green Certificates Market (Norway) - Nettkapasitet og Sertifikatmarked

Det er nok lite informasjon som er lagt ut om utarbeidet av felles norsk-svensk grønt sertifikatmarkedet for å klippe inn pressemelding som Statnett publiserer i dag:

"Nettkapasitet intet hinder for sertifikatmarked

Svenska Kraftnät og Statnett er enig om å videreføre arbeidet med Sydvestlenken, den nye planlagte ledningen mellom Sverige og Norge i sør. Forutsatt at konsesjoner og nødvendige tillatelser blir gitt kan ledningen være ferdig i 2016.

Det er i dag en betydelig utvekslingskapasitet mellom Norge og Sverige som er bygget opp over år. Den er i dag ca 3 000 MW, og kapasiteten vil øke til ca 3 500 MW nåe nye Oslofjordkabler er på plass i 2012. Statnett kan derfor ikke se at utvekslingskapasiteten mellom Sverige og Norge er et hinder for å etablere sertifikatmarked." (min understrekning)

Reference:

• Press release, 03.09.2010, Statnett;
• Stortinget, interpellasjon fra representanten Ketil Solvik-Olsen til Olje- og energiministeren, 19. mars 2010;
• El-sertifikat-marked med Sverige - begynner å haste med avklaring, Energi Norge, 31.08.2010.