Filenews 23 September 2021
The Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry, Mrs Natasa Pilidou, expresses her warm thanks to the Plenum of the House of Representatives, the Chairman and the members of the House Standing Committee on Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, as well as all the social and other partners involved, following the adoption in Laws of the three bills promoted by the Government and concerning the promotion of reforms in relation to the operation of the electricity market in Cyprus.
"This great success", stresses Mrs Pilidou, "belongs to everyone without exception, since the reforms promoted and, of course, their implementation, require a spirit of cooperation and consensus, from all political areas and organizations involved. The laws passed today are, without a doubt, the most important reform in the electricity market since the accession of Cyprus to the European Union and, now, the way is opened for the implementation of the competitive market model, in accordance with the Electricity Market Rules approved by the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) in 2017.
All that remains for the competitive electricity market to operate in October 2022 is a faithful commitment to the timetable for the full completion of the necessary infrastructure, which will be put on trial in April 2022. Hence, we invite all businesses and natural persons who wish to participate in the electricity market, either as producers or as suppliers, self-consumers, cumulative service operators, etc., to visit the website of the competent body, namely the Electricity Market Operator who is the Cyprus Transmission System Operator, in order to participate in educational activities, in order to familiarize themselves with the operation of the market, which is expected to be an event in exactly one year from now."
Among other things, the major changes that occur in the structure of the electricity market with today's enactment of the Laws, are the following:
- The Cyprus Transmission System Operator is now becoming a fully independent and autonomous legal entity of public law, which is required by the role it is called upon to play as the objective and neutral Operator of the Electricity Market.
- CERA and the Office of CERA (i.e. the staff of the Authority), which until today constitute two different legal entities, are established as a single legal entity of public law.
- The position and role of final electricity customers is strengthened with the introduction of a series of new provisions and rights. Among other things, the right to change supplier within a maximum period of three weeks and from 1/1/2026 within only 24 hours, the direct or indirect participation of final customers in the electricity market (active customers), the establishment and operation of energy communities of citizens, the access of citizens to tools for comparing offers, their right to access to a smart meter, is provided for, their right to participate in an out-of-court dispute resolution mechanism, the protection of their personal data, the invoice information and the way in which they should be indicated, etc.
- Issues relating to the definition and measurement of energy poverty, as well as the definition of vulnerable customers and the different categories and measures taken to protect them, are regulated.
It should be noted that with the publication of the Laws in the Official Gazette of the Republic, the harmonization of national legislation with Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market in electricity, as well as partial harmonization with the Directives in relation to the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and energy efficiency, is officially achieved.
Furthermore, there are provisions for the more effective implementation of a series of EU Regulations, such as Regulation (EU) No ... Regulation (EU) No 1227/2011 on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency. Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure 2019/943 on the internal market in electricity and Regulation (EU) No .../... 2017/1485 laying down guidelines for the operation of the electricity transmission system.
