A competitive electricity market; The Swedish implementation of the EU unbundling regulations
(2021) LAGM01 20211Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- In the 1990’s there was a lot of discussions in the EU regarding energy and the need for a common EU energy market. Both for the sake of competition, but also in order to provide a stable supply of energy to all EU citizens.
The EU began promoting an EU energy market. The first EU legal acts in this area concerned the establishment of an EU energy market and consequently to create competition between Member States. Later the legislation became more and more centred on the environment and sustainable energy sources and more recently the EU began to introduce consumer rights in the EU energy market. The EU’s means to establish the market was the liberal market economy.
The energy markets moved from being the state monopolies that they... (More) - In the 1990’s there was a lot of discussions in the EU regarding energy and the need for a common EU energy market. Both for the sake of competition, but also in order to provide a stable supply of energy to all EU citizens.
The EU began promoting an EU energy market. The first EU legal acts in this area concerned the establishment of an EU energy market and consequently to create competition between Member States. Later the legislation became more and more centred on the environment and sustainable energy sources and more recently the EU began to introduce consumer rights in the EU energy market. The EU’s means to establish the market was the liberal market economy.
The energy markets moved from being the state monopolies that they had been for historical reasons. This especially concerned energy networks since they are very costly and it’s not financially viable to invest in a new power network when one network already exists. Production and distribution of energy gives higher return on investments.
The EU’s solution to the possible discriminatory behaviour between vertically integrated undertakings in energy distribution and production and energy network were unbundling.
Unbundling requires the separation of distribution and supply on one hand and generation and supply on the other hand. In the EU the Member States have to establish rules so that the same person does not exercise any control over a producer or a supplier whilst also exercising control over a transmission system operator or a transmission system.
The thesis looks at three articles of the new energy market Directive 2019/944, Articles 34, 35 and 43. Articles 35 and 43 of the Directive 2019/944 concerns ownership unbundling, the form of unbundling that Sweden has chosen to implement. Article 35 handles the unbundling of the distribution system operators and Article 43 handles the unbundling of the transmission system operators.
Article 34 of the Directive 2019/944 concerns the data management of the undertakings and the thesis uses it as an illustration of the problems of unbundling and the more recent evolution in the unbundling of the EU energy market.
The thesis compares the EU articles and their purposes, as well as previous EU legislation in the area, to the Swedish implementation of the unbundling regulation to find out whether the Swedish legislation is in compliance with the Directive 2019/944.
The thesis concludes that Articles 35 and 43 of the Directive 2019/944 have not changed in comparison to their corresponding articles in previous Directives. Sweden has implemented previous Articles in a correct manner in compliance with the EU unbundling regulations.
However, Article 34 of the Directive 2019/944 on data management is a new addition. Data management as a competitive advantage could perhaps be interpreted as prohibited by previous unbundling regulations since the purpose of unbundling is to prevent such advantages from existing. In general the Swedish implementation seems to be in compliance with the Directive 2019/944. One interesting aspect is that the new Directive specifically states certain other purposes than the old one which means that even artciles that have not changed in wording may be interpreted in a new and different way. Some of the purposes presented in the preamble of the Directive 2019/944 have not been implemented into the Swedish preparatory work to the legislation. This should not pose a problem for the Swedish compliance since the Swedish legislation should be interpreted in accordance with the EU Directive. However, certain things such as a shared customer service may pose problems, which are not in compliance with the purposes of the Directives and these problems are not mentioned in Swedish law, yet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9050049
- author
- Forkman, Ingeborg LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- LAGM01 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Energy, EU energy market, unbundling, Directive 2019/944
- language
- English
- id
- 9050049
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-14 16:01:58
- date last changed
- 2021-06-14 16:01:58
@misc{9050049,
abstract = {{In the 1990’s there was a lot of discussions in the EU regarding energy and the need for a common EU energy market. Both for the sake of competition, but also in order to provide a stable supply of energy to all EU citizens.
The EU began promoting an EU energy market. The first EU legal acts in this area concerned the establishment of an EU energy market and consequently to create competition between Member States. Later the legislation became more and more centred on the environment and sustainable energy sources and more recently the EU began to introduce consumer rights in the EU energy market. The EU’s means to establish the market was the liberal market economy.
The energy markets moved from being the state monopolies that they had been for historical reasons. This especially concerned energy networks since they are very costly and it’s not financially viable to invest in a new power network when one network already exists. Production and distribution of energy gives higher return on investments.
The EU’s solution to the possible discriminatory behaviour between vertically integrated undertakings in energy distribution and production and energy network were unbundling.
Unbundling requires the separation of distribution and supply on one hand and generation and supply on the other hand. In the EU the Member States have to establish rules so that the same person does not exercise any control over a producer or a supplier whilst also exercising control over a transmission system operator or a transmission system.
The thesis looks at three articles of the new energy market Directive 2019/944, Articles 34, 35 and 43. Articles 35 and 43 of the Directive 2019/944 concerns ownership unbundling, the form of unbundling that Sweden has chosen to implement. Article 35 handles the unbundling of the distribution system operators and Article 43 handles the unbundling of the transmission system operators.
Article 34 of the Directive 2019/944 concerns the data management of the undertakings and the thesis uses it as an illustration of the problems of unbundling and the more recent evolution in the unbundling of the EU energy market.
The thesis compares the EU articles and their purposes, as well as previous EU legislation in the area, to the Swedish implementation of the unbundling regulation to find out whether the Swedish legislation is in compliance with the Directive 2019/944.
The thesis concludes that Articles 35 and 43 of the Directive 2019/944 have not changed in comparison to their corresponding articles in previous Directives. Sweden has implemented previous Articles in a correct manner in compliance with the EU unbundling regulations.
However, Article 34 of the Directive 2019/944 on data management is a new addition. Data management as a competitive advantage could perhaps be interpreted as prohibited by previous unbundling regulations since the purpose of unbundling is to prevent such advantages from existing. In general the Swedish implementation seems to be in compliance with the Directive 2019/944. One interesting aspect is that the new Directive specifically states certain other purposes than the old one which means that even artciles that have not changed in wording may be interpreted in a new and different way. Some of the purposes presented in the preamble of the Directive 2019/944 have not been implemented into the Swedish preparatory work to the legislation. This should not pose a problem for the Swedish compliance since the Swedish legislation should be interpreted in accordance with the EU Directive. However, certain things such as a shared customer service may pose problems, which are not in compliance with the purposes of the Directives and these problems are not mentioned in Swedish law, yet.}},
author = {{Forkman, Ingeborg}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A competitive electricity market; The Swedish implementation of the EU unbundling regulations}},
year = {{2021}},
}