Members of European Parliament in Strasbourg said in their plenary vote on September 13 the new design of electricity in the EU should "enhance regional cooperation and focus on improved, more decentralised and more flexible markets”, ensuring an electricity supply balanced against distortions, and more integration of renewables on the market.
Their recommendations would feed into the legislative proposals concerning the electricity market to be presented later this year, the Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) said in an e-mailed press release.
"We need the gradual phasing-out of subsidies for mature renewable technologies as a number of these technologies are rapidly becoming cost-competitive with conventional forms of generation,” said German MEP Werner Langen (EPP), rapporteur for the file.
"Capacity markets, when they are no longer necessary or badly designed, lead to distortions of competition and excessive prices and are a barrier to cross-border trade”, Langen added. "We also demand that the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is given the power of decision-making to increase coordination for regional cooperation and interregional issues”, he further said.
MEPs highlighted any measure taken by the Member States to ensure that electricity supply can match demand in medium and long term "must be designed from the perspective of cross-border co-operation” and "must comply with EU rules on competition and State aid”.
The "cross-border capacity mechanisms” should be authorised "only” when the following criteria are met: Their need is confirmed by a detailed regional adequacy analysis of the production and supply situation; there is no possible alternative measure that is less costly and less market intrusive; their design is market-based; their design includes rules to ensure that capacities are allocated sufficiently in advance in order to provide adequate investment signals to less polluting plants; and sustainability and air quality rules are incorporated, MEPs said.
MEPs also stressed the importance of stable and cost-effective renewable support schemes for long-term investment that should remain responsive and adaptable in the short-term and should be tailored to national needs and circumstances, allowing gradual phasing out of subsidies for mature renewable technologies, ITRE said.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/meps-call-market-driven-eu-electricity-cooperation-renewables/
