While the National Assembly’s investigation commission on past, present and future costs of the nuclear industry engaged in some work, the AFIEG is surprised by the continuing lack of visibility regarding the regulated access to historical nuclear electricity (ARENH) mechanism.
In first place, the AFIEG asks that the consultation regarding the upcoming decree setting the methodology for the ARENH’s price calculation, scheduled for November 2013, is launched as soon as possible. The AFIEG reminds that according to the disposition of the law on the new organization of the electricity market (NOME), this decree should have been published in a three year period after the promulgation of the law, which was on December 7th 2013 at the latest. Since this date, the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) has the authority to propose the ARENH’s price, though due to the absence of publication, the regulator lacks the regulatory base to fulfill its mission.
The AFIEG reminds that this consultation has to respect the article 1 and 4 of the European REMIT regulation on the information regarding the wholesale electricity market. The AFIEG urges the government to ensure that no provider has access to privileged information, regarding the methodology for the price calculation, which would allow an estimation of the upcoming price of the ARENH, as it would be a distortion of competition on the French electricity market.
In second place, the AFIEG reminds that the Competition Authority has long recognized that the ARENH “does not place the alternative providers in the same condition as EDF”. The CRE issued a technical recommendation regarding the evolution of this mechanism in a report published in January 2013. In spite of this summer consultation, the AFIEG regrets that none of those technical adjustments has been implemented at this date.
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The AFIEG, created in March 2012 and headed by Marc Boudier, aims at being a key contact point for public decision makers and at promoting alternatives to the current malfunctions of the energy market, in favor of final consumers. Its founding members are ALPIQ, ENEL-ENDESA, EON and VATTENFALL. AFIEG works at promoting an open and fair competition on energy markets and, in that regard, will share its independent expertise on energy issues in France, based on its members’ experience of open markets elsewhere in Europe.
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Note : According to the article 1 and 4 of the European REMIT regulation (RE 1227/2011), privileged information is a piece of information, precise in nature, that has not been made public and that regards, directly or indirectly, one or several wholesale energy products, and which, has it been made public, would have a significant impact on the price of those products. Such a piece of information has to be released. In France, the CoRDIS is responsible for enforcing any breach of the REMIT regulation.