• transmission lines connecting the Iberian
Peninsula, Baltic Sea region, Ireland and Great
Britain will be built. To this end, the EU set up
the South-west Europe High-level Working
Party to encourage Spain, France and Portugal
to construct energy infrastructure through
technical support and regular monitoring, and
to strengthen interconnections between the
peninsula and other parts of the EU;
• two new transmission lines connecting
Lithuania, Poland and Sweden are under
construction to interconnect the Baltic states
with Sweden and Poland for the first time;
• the EuroAsia Interconnector, a high-voltage
transmission project that will connect the
power grids of Israel, Greece and Cyprus with
continental Europe, is under construction;
• to adapt to the rapid development of natural
gas and wind power generation, Australia
continues to invest heavily in cross-regional
interconnections. As estimated by the Australian Energy Market Operator, Australia
needs to invest AUD 24 billion in the transmission network by 2030 and AUD 120 billion in the power distribution network; and
• Russia has promoted the construction of an
energy bridge with North Korea, while
accelerating connection to the grids of surrounding countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Mongolia and Ukraine.
7.3.4 Build a Strong Regulatory
Mechanism to Ensure
Effective Competition
in the Power Market
As power market reform moved forward, countries gradually realised that strong regulation is
an important condition for effective competition.
Increasing the powers of the regulators and
improving the content and methods of regulation
has been an important trend in power market
reform in recent years.
• The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued policies and regulations to improve wholesale power, capacity
and auxiliary service market pricing, and
regulates the demand-response resources
entering the market in accordance with the
latest measures for demand-side management.
• As suggested by Germany’s Electricity Market 2.0, the German Federal Network Agency
(Bundesnetzagentur) should issue regulatory
measures and publish reports on the wholesale market at least once every two years,
making the regulation of market abuse and
monopoly actions more open and transparent.
• An amendment to Japan’s Electricity Business Act was adopted at the plenary session
of the House of Councillors. The act defines
the plan for phase 3 of reform and states that
an independent electricity regulatory commission will be formed.
• Australia released its national energy market
reform roadmap, according to which regulating investment by grid operators and determining a reasonable rate of return for them is
an important part of the reform.
• FERC issued rules on market supervision,
regulation and analysis and strengthened
power market information disclosure. This
requires regional power wholesale markets to
make power sales and transmission information public within a specified time, make
power market prices more transparent and
ensure users pay a reasonable price.
• To promote the development of low-carbon
power and provide users with affordable
electricity, the UK announced a plan for a
new round of reform measures that includes
price support for low-carbon energy through
contracts for difference and a capacity market
for procuring flexibility to balance the intermittency of variable renewables like wind and
solar. This should improve investment in
low-carbon energy and increase capacity. The
government is also considering adjusting the
transmission tariff mechanism to reflect the
tariff for different types of generation,
including prosumers supplying distributed
renewable generation to the grid and consuming electricity from the grid during times
of low or no renewables generation.
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S. Yaodong and A. Gillespie
Peninsula, Baltic Sea region, Ireland and Great
Britain will be built. To this end, the EU set up
the South-west Europe High-level Working
Party to encourage Spain, France and Portugal
to construct energy infrastructure through
technical support and regular monitoring, and
to strengthen interconnections between the
peninsula and other parts of the EU;
• two new transmission lines connecting
Lithuania, Poland and Sweden are under
construction to interconnect the Baltic states
with Sweden and Poland for the first time;
• the EuroAsia Interconnector, a high-voltage
transmission project that will connect the
power grids of Israel, Greece and Cyprus with
continental Europe, is under construction;
• to adapt to the rapid development of natural
gas and wind power generation, Australia
continues to invest heavily in cross-regional
interconnections. As estimated by the Australian Energy Market Operator, Australia
needs to invest AUD 24 billion in the transmission network by 2030 and AUD 120 billion in the power distribution network; and
• Russia has promoted the construction of an
energy bridge with North Korea, while
accelerating connection to the grids of surrounding countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Mongolia and Ukraine.
7.3.4 Build a Strong Regulatory
Mechanism to Ensure
Effective Competition
in the Power Market
As power market reform moved forward, countries gradually realised that strong regulation is
an important condition for effective competition.
Increasing the powers of the regulators and
improving the content and methods of regulation
has been an important trend in power market
reform in recent years.
• The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued policies and regulations to improve wholesale power, capacity
and auxiliary service market pricing, and
regulates the demand-response resources
entering the market in accordance with the
latest measures for demand-side management.
• As suggested by Germany’s Electricity Market 2.0, the German Federal Network Agency
(Bundesnetzagentur) should issue regulatory
measures and publish reports on the wholesale market at least once every two years,
making the regulation of market abuse and
monopoly actions more open and transparent.
• An amendment to Japan’s Electricity Business Act was adopted at the plenary session
of the House of Councillors. The act defines
the plan for phase 3 of reform and states that
an independent electricity regulatory commission will be formed.
• Australia released its national energy market
reform roadmap, according to which regulating investment by grid operators and determining a reasonable rate of return for them is
an important part of the reform.
• FERC issued rules on market supervision,
regulation and analysis and strengthened
power market information disclosure. This
requires regional power wholesale markets to
make power sales and transmission information public within a specified time, make
power market prices more transparent and
ensure users pay a reasonable price.
• To promote the development of low-carbon
power and provide users with affordable
electricity, the UK announced a plan for a
new round of reform measures that includes
price support for low-carbon energy through
contracts for difference and a capacity market
for procuring flexibility to balance the intermittency of variable renewables like wind and
solar. This should improve investment in
low-carbon energy and increase capacity. The
government is also considering adjusting the
transmission tariff mechanism to reflect the
tariff for different types of generation,
including prosumers supplying distributed
renewable generation to the grid and consuming electricity from the grid during times
of low or no renewables generation.
500
S. Yaodong and A. Gillespie