Moldovan Parliament passed in the second reading a draft law aimed at ensuring the transparency and functionality of the electricity market.
The document was drafted by the Ministry of Energy in order to ensure the proper functioning of the electricity market and improve the legislative framework in the context of effective crisis management in this sector. At the same time, the draft law aims at harmonizing the national legislation with that of the European Union and transposes the EU Regulation on the integrity and transparency of the wholesale energy market. Thanks to the amendments, Moldova's electricity market will become more organized, orderly, transparent and connected to the European markets. In particular, it is proposed to include new articles in the Law on Electricity regarding the criteria for appointing an electricity market operator (electricity exchange). This will make it possible to organize a day-ahead market, an intraday market, a centralized market for bilateral contracts, and in the future it will be possible to link the local electricity market with similar markets integrated at the European level. Another package of amendments transposes into national legislation the European standards on the integrity and transparency of the electricity market, as well as on the prevention of possible manipulation of the electricity market, so that, if abuses by electricity market participants are detected, the regulator will have the possibility to apply sanctions appropriate to the identified violation and the damage caused. To this end, the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) will be granted additional powers to monitor the electricity market, investigate and punish wholesale electricity market participants committing abuses and misconduct. It is proposed that ANRE may penalize wholesale electricity market participants depending on the violations detected and the damage caused. The amendments regulate the identification and management of possible exceptional situations in the electricity sector. Thus, the regulator will be able to intervene promptly to detect and eliminate any dysfunctions, mitigating their consequences. According to the Ministry of Energy, once the amendments to the Electricity Law are approved, ANRE will have the following instruments: temporary suspension of the relevant market until its dysfunctionality is eliminated; limitation or temporary prohibition of electricity exports; establishment of the obligation of the public service to sell electricity in volumes and at regulated prices; establishment of the public service obligations for the centralized purchase of electricity needed by universal service providers or emergency supplies to system operators through auction or direct negotiations; obliging one or more electricity producers to participate in the electricity balancing market and system services market or to provide balancing services and system services in volumes and at regulated prices. Some of these provisions are governed by the regulations of the Emergency Situations Commission and will thus be incorporated into the basic law. The law on electricity will also include a new concept - a component of justice, which means a one -time mutual payment obligation arising from contractual relations, determined in accordance with the ANRE-approved methodology, approval and application of adjustable prices for the supply of electricity, and levied from consumers or from the supplier who is entrusted with the obligation to provide public services, in the case of changing the supplier or termination of the contract for the supply of electricity, and in the case when the financial deviations of the supplier exceed 5% of the regulated income determined in accordance with the methodology of calculation, approval and application of regulated prices for the supply of electricity. // 22.12.2023 - InfoMarket.
