5th CEER benchmarking report on the quality of electricity supply 2011
Background
The Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) periodically surveys and analyses the quality of electricity supply in its member countries. These surveys and analyses take the form of CEER Benchmarking Reports on Quality of Electricity Supply
(hereafter Benchmarking Reports). The first report was issued in 2001 [1], followed by the second, third and fourth editions in 2003, 2005 and 2008 respectively [2] [3] [4].
CEER recommended the following activities in the First Benchmarking Report:
- publication of the report to promote discussion of quality of supply regulation amongst EU and non-EU Regulatory Authorities;
- submission of the findings for discussion at international conferences on regulatory issues;
- enlargement of the membership (6 countries) to include other countries.
The publication of these Benchmarking Reports, using a minimum common structure through all the editions, has facilitated the availability of information on the regulation of quality of supply and on the effects produced by this regulation in each country. As a result, good practices for regulating quality of supply in electrical networks are described in the Benchmarking Reports and are adopted by many European countries. The benchmarking exercise has steadily spread to other countries as displayedin Figure 1.1, which depicts the enlargement of the participation in the previous four editions.
Expanding Coverage
In addition to National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) from its member countries, CEER is pleased that NRAs from other European countries are joining the benchmarking practice for this 5th edition. As displayed in Figure 1.2, the 9 NRAs from the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine and United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo have undertaken their joint benchmarking report (included as an Annex to the present report). In addition, information on continuity of supply and voltage quality aspects in Switzerland has been incorporated as case studies directly into this report (in dedicated sections of the relevant chapters), with information provided by the Swiss NRA, ElCom. The full information on national
regulations and their effects in the ECRB countries is available in the annex on "Quality of Electricity Supply in the Energy Community”.
FIGURE 1.2 Active contribution to this edition of the 5th Benchmarking Report (2011)
Structure
This 5th Benchmarking Report addresses the three major aspects of quality of electricity supply: the availability of electricity (continuity of supply), its technical properties (voltage quality) and the speed and accuracy with which customer requests are
handled (commercial quality). These elements are treated in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, respectively.
Each chapter presents the results of the benchmarking activity through the following main steps:- An explanation of the quality aspect and the importance of regulating it;
- A summary of the past activities of the European Energy Regulators, with an emphasis on the period since the publication of the 4th Benchmarking Report;
- Specific details on the following topics:
- A review of what is monitored;
- A review of how it is monitored and regulated;
and - Actual data and results available from monitoring and regulation.
For continuity of supply, in this edition particular focus was placed on the output (continuity)-based regulatory mechanisms and incentives currently adopted in most European countries (Section 2.8).
This follows up the priority which was stated by the European Energy Regulators in the Position Paper on Smart Grids [5]: “regulators shall mainly focus on outputs, by tailored regulatory mechanisms, in their regulation of the distribution and transmission grids.”
Conclusions
Each chapter concludes with a summary of CEER’s main findings and recommendations regarding each quality aspect (Sections 2.9, 3.6 and 4.8).
For both, continuity of supply and voltage quality aspects, CEER has identified a common recommendation: countries use different terms to identify network users, also according to their use of networks (e.g. network users, users, customers, end-users, transmission customers, transmission users, consumers, generators, producers). This could result in misunderstandings and lack of comparability. CEER therefore recommends the harmonisation of the terms used for the regulation of continuity of supply and voltage quality, adopting following terms only: network users (in short form, users), consumers, and generators.
For commercial quality, the term “customer” is deemed to describe better the relationship between the network operator or supplier as a company and the network user as a customer of this company.