The president of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), Cani Fernández, called on the competent authorities of the European Union this Wednesday to start an infringement procedure on the action of the French Government regarding the connections electricity with Spain.
Fernández launched his suggestion in front of Christian Zinglersen, director of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) of the European Union, with whom he shared the stage at a conference of the “Energy Prospectives” cycle organized by Fundación Naturgy that was held at the headquarters of the IESE in Madrid.
The current electrical connections between both countries do not reach 3%, when European legislation set a minimum interconnection goal between European countries of 10% in 2020. From the Spanish competition regulator it is considered that the position French has been hindering progress, and therefore, there could be a breach of European legislation that “should at least be subject to an inspection procedure”.
Currently, the French and Spanish governments have reached an agreement to make reasonable progress in sharing the construction costs of the Bay of Biscay interconnection to make progress in achieving that 10%, although even with this connection in progress the target would be very far away.
The truth is that Cani Fernández herself has little hope that this will be feasible. His colleague, Zinglersen, considers that analyzing this request “is a very complicated issue”. He assures that it would mean approaching an analysis in which “the data of the two countries that have very different energy profiles should be evaluated. France does have connections with other countries in central Europe, which is why it is not easy to analyze a country’s position against interconnections”, he commented.
The issue of interconnections is just one of the many fringes that the European energy authorities have on the table. During this Wednesday’s session, Fernández and Zinglersen, moderated by IESE professor Jordi Gual, analyzed the regulatory challenges of the energy transition. The two experts have positioned themselves in favor of “the market setting the price signals” as it is the best operating formula under normal conditions.
What has been learned in recent years is that exceptions exist and have a great impact and “for those moments, exceptional measures have been needed that have been effective”, said the president of the CNMC. According to Cani Fernández, measures such as the Iberian exception to put a limit on gas prices have worked and can be used “in specific moments”, but they cannot be a general rule. That is why the European regulation should not provide for them as a general rule.
A reform that has a crucial date tomorrow, the day by which it is expected that the European Parliament will finish its amendments and that the working group of the Council of Ministers will discuss theirs so that the presidency, now in Spanish hands, can plan the next steps
Among the most complicated challenges to tackle is, according to the speakers, that of integrating the different technologies that make up the energy mix in a manner consistent with the current market situation.
