This week saw the launch of the EU Energy Union. This initiative sets out several objectives in order to further integrate the governance and running of the EU’s energy strategy. On the wholesale side, this includes further proceeding with the 3rd Energy Package, a market re design, and also the strengthening of the powers of ACER. ACER’s own press release can be found here. It is worth noting the caveat about ACER being sufficiently resourced, which has been an issue in the past.

At the same time we have seen a further commitment to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS), with the proposal of a structural reform. commitment to better support carbon prices by use of the Market Stability Reserve and other measures such as “back-loading” allowances for certain years. It is felt that the changes announced will breathe new life into the ETS. This FT article provides some more detail.

Earlier this week we have also seen the first round of allocations of CfDs under the UK’s Electricity Market Reform. The CfDs have been granted to many renewable generators, helping the UK to achieve its carbon objectives. There is a detailed article here on Business Green which further explains the issues.

Taken together, all of this highlights the hive of activity in regulation  which must be considered and tracked alongside REMIT, MiFID and others, which focus more on the very trading specific elements of our industry. We intend to track this strand in more detail in future on this blog.