European energy regulators agree on joint balancing of electricity

European regulators, united in the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), have given the green light to the European network code on electricity balancing. Now that this decision has been taken, it means that the European Commission will have to come up with legislation. In the Netherlands, the energy regulator is the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

New rules

With the new balancing rules, fewer measures will have to be taken in one’s own country in order to keep the grid in balance as other countries are now also able to contribute. These measures include raising or lowering production levels of electricity by plants, or reducing industrial consumption of electricity. In the Netherlands, market participants have already supported the balancing process for quite some time. With this new system, less production in our own country will be needed because the directly available surpluses in other countries will be tapped first before we come into action ourselves.

A single European energy market

ACM considers the legislative amendment on electricity balancing as the final part of the electricity market that has not yet been integrated at a European level. ACM hopes that, with this amendment, the completion of the internal European energy market will be accelerated.