Friends of the Supergrid, replied to the European Commission’s public consultation on the new electricity market design. FOSG welcomes this Communication that contains essential elements necessary to adapt the market to the new system in which renewables will soon represent a significant share of the electricity production. To make the actual transition to this new energy system, FOSG is convinced that the following adaptations to the market rules are crucial:

• Efficient price signals that reward and incentivise the development of flexibility;
• Strong, integrated and liquid cross-border intraday markets and balancing services across the EU in which all sources of flexibility can participate;
• The introduction of a serious debate at EU level on the need for long term transmission contracts to provide greater investor certainty to develop and finance new transmission grid and RES infrastructure;
• A coordinated approach to the development of RES with harmonised RES support schemes across the EU to ensure deployment of RES at the lowest cost and best location;
• A harmonised regional and European regulatory environment with a more active role for ACER to overcome inconsistent national regulatory practices, including the development of new interconnections;
• System adequacy assessment at European level which will lead to a more efficient use of existing resources;

As a precondition for the success of the abovementioned measures, European grids should be sufficiently interconnected. The new market design should incentivise the necessary investments in infrastructure to build a strong Pan-European grid on time.

FOSG Reply to Market Desing Consultation Oct 2015