Background and context
By proposing EU-wide rules to follow in case of crises, the Commission intends to bolster regional cooperation and assistance among Member States. This approach can be less costly, more secure and strengthen the functioning of the electricity market.
As part of the Clean energy for all Europeans package, the Regulation on risk-preparedness in the electricity sector requires competent authorities in all EU countries to cooperate with each other to ensure that, in electricity crisis, electricity goes where it is most needed. The requirements include putting in place appropriate tools to prevent, prepare for and manage possible electricity crises in a spirit of solidarity and transparency. The regulation also introduces common methodologies to identify crisis scenarios and to assess short term and seasonal adequacy between generation and consumption of electricity to preserve the stability of the grid and avoid shortage.
Our role
We contribute to shaping and monitoring the electricity risk-preparedness policy and legislative actions.
Main publications
2021 - Regional measures under risk preparedness in the electricity sector
This study addresses the regional dimension of electricity crises management in the European Union and elaborates on the national and regional rules and procedures that are relevant for the definition of target measures and regional cooperation agreements. In this context, we identify the essential elements for the prevention, preparation for and management of a crisis as a practical guide for the preparation of the risk preparedness plan, with the objective to extend and develop the European Commission’s Recommendations (EU) 2020/1775 (European Commission, 2020b). This analysis is based on a number of regulatory documents - like the guideline on electricity transmission system operation and the network code on emergency and restoration - and other studies on the most frequent causes of outages, the associated effective remedial actions, the best practices in crisis management, and the economic impacts of electricity crises.