Draft rules for the functioning of the common electricity market are ready for consideration by the bodies of the Eurasian Economic Union
The formation of the regulatory framework for the common electricity market of the EAEU was discussed by representatives of the energy sector authorized bodies, as well as leading energy companies of five Eurasian countries at the 18th meeting of the Advisory Committee on Electricity under the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission on August 24 in Cholpon-Ata (Kyrgyzstan).
A significant number of uncoordinated provisions were settled at the meeting. The drafts of two documents included in the package of rules for the functioning of the common electricity market have been prepared for adoption and approval at a high level. The draft rules for mutual trade in electricity are at a high degree of readiness, said Vadim Zakrevskiy, Director of the EEC Energy Department.
The Advisory Committee approved the draft rules for determining and distributing the capacity of interstate sections in the common electricity market (CEM) of the EAEU. The draft document will be considered at a meeting of the EEC Board in September this year.
Also at the meeting, the draft rules for access to services for the interstate transmission of electric energy (capacity) within the framework of the EAEU PES were agreed, with the exception of the issue concerning the conclusion of contracts for non-trade interstate transmission if the parties have disagreements on its terms (to be considered by the EEC Council).
The draft rules for mutual trade in electricity on the EAEU CEM regulate the issue of the currency of trade on the Union's CEM. The parties agreed that in case of centralized day-ahead trading and fixed-term contracts, the submission of applications and price fixing for electricity will be carried out in the currency of the Member State in whose jurisdiction the centralized trading operator works.
On behalf of the EEC Board, the Advisory Committee additionally considered the need to keep the points that are addressed to the governments of the EAEU countries in the draft resolution of the EEC Council on the identification of operators (trading platforms) of centralized electricity trading under fixed-term contracts and day ahead. The presence in the draft of this document of instructions to the governments of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia guarantees the implementation of a set of measures determined by the marketplaces aimed at modernizing their current business processes and software and hardware systems to implement the functions of centralized electricity trading operators at the Union's OER, and also, if necessary, financing costs. As a result of the discussion, four EAEU states confirmed this need.
“The soonest approval of all documents regulating the functioning of the common electricity market will make it possible to organize free trade in electricity within the timeframes set by the presidents of the Eurasian Five,” said Vadim Zakrevskiy, Director of the EEC Energy Department, summing up the event.
In order to organize centralized trade in electricity on the common market, the EEC Council must determine the operators of such trade. It should be noted that Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia have already offered their trading platforms for work on the common electricity market of the EAEU. These are the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, the Kazakh operator of the electricity and capacity market, the St. Petersburg International Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange and the Russian Trading System Administrator. The draft of the relevant order of the EEC Council was prepared, agreed upon by the ministers of energy of the EAEU countries and sent for consideration by the EAEU bodies.