Brussels, 6 October 2016 | In the light of the upcoming revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), seven leading European associations are calling for a change in the way electricity products are differentiated and consumer choice in the electricity market is supported at EU level.
In a liberalised and constantly changing energy market consumers should have a choice in the type of energy product they wish to consume. Although many achievements have been made in developing a pan-European energy market, some areas of improvement remain. One is the EU regulation supporting a tracking system for electricity production – the Guarantee of Origin (GO) system. It is time to further improve the existing legislation related to its standardisation and use. This requires an improved fuel-mix disclosure as well as an enhanced coordination of the trading schemes at European level. The possibility to be better informed on the energy source and its environmental impact, and to choose a specific type of energy (e.g. renewable or fossil, or, more specifically, sun, wind, hydro, coal, gas, nuclear, etc.), is limited in some EU member states due to an unspecific or inconsistent transposition of the European into national legislation.
The GO system is the best and most reliable tool for tracking the source of electricity from the producer to the consumer. However, improved legislation and standardisation will further support the European consumers in their use of electricity. Better disclosure rules are a key requirement in this development. Seven leading European associations from different interest fields are therefore calling on European policy makers to make common sense changes to the way various electricity products are disclosed to electricity consumers.
The associations have together drafted a joint communication outlining clear changes to the Guarantee of Origin market and the related disclosure regulation.
The joint communication can be found here.
To discuss these issues or if you need more information, please contact Phil Moody at the Association of Issuing Bodies (secgen@aib-net.org), Gert De Block at CEDEC (gert.deblock@cedec.com), Christian Baer at Europex (christian.baer@europex.org) or Jared Braslawsky at RECS International (j.braslawsky@recs.org).
