Post by account_disabled on Mar 14, 2024 8:21:40 GMT
Faced with technological evolution, socio-environmental conditions, intense judicialization and signs of exhaustion of the current model of the electrical sector, the Ministry of Mines and Energy opened Public Consultation 33/2017, based on Technical Note 5/2017, to collect contributions from society to improve the legal, institutional and regulatory framework of the electricity sector. The objective was to provide an environment of trust, innovation and competitiveness, considering technical, economic and socio-environmental sustainability criteria. There were several topics discussed in the public consultation, including changes in the free electricity market. In light of such an initiative, this article will deal with new developments regarding the topic and perspectives of such changes.
The result of the public consultation was reflected in the substitute for PL 1917/2015, which was the subject of several amendments and is currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies. Despite the various changes made to the original text proposed as a result of the public consultation on topics relating to the free market, the PL foresees several changes to the current legislation to enable the sustainable opening of the market, as detailed below.
Firstly, the PL contemplates the B2B Lead following minimum load limits and dates for opening the free market to captive consumers: (i) 2020: 2MW; (ii) 2021: 1MW; (iii) 2022: 500 kW; (iv) 2024: 300 kW; and (v) 2026: no load limit for consumers served at voltages equal to or greater than 2.3 kV. Furthermore, by the end of 2022, the Executive Branch must present a plan, to be in force from 2028, for the complete extinction of the minimum load requirement for consumers served at voltages lower than 2.3 kV. The PL also provides that, from 2021 onwards, consumers with a load of less than 500 kW (called retail consumers) will be represented by a retail agent at the Energy Trading Chamber (CCEE).
Furthermore, and in order to neutralize the impacts of market opening to energy distributors, the PL provides for the allocation to all free market consumers of the results, positive or negative, of the involuntary exposures of energy distributors as a result of the migration of consumers to the free market. To this end, there is an authorization for distributors with excess energy due to involuntary exposure to sell such energy in a centralized mechanism to be regulated by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).
Another impact of the market opening refers to the end of the possibility of exclusive sale by projects of up to 5 MW and projects from solar, wind, hydroelectric or biomass sources whose power injected into the system is up to 50 MW to so-called special consumers, which are those consumers or group of consumers brought together by common interests in fact or in law, whose load is greater than or equal to 500 kW. In other words, from the moment the market opens for customers above 500 kW, they will be able to freely choose their supplier, regardless of the source and size of the project.
As can be seen, these and some other important topics are associated with the opening of the free energy market and require careful analysis. Nevertheless, and given that the team that was in government when Public Consultation 33/2017 was published was changed, the MME, in December 2018, published a new public consultation to reduce the limits of access to the free market in the following terms: (i) from 7/1/2019, consumers with a load equal to or greater than 2.5MW, served at any voltage, will be able to migrate to the free market; and (ii) from 2020 onwards, consumers with a load equal to or greater than 2MW, served at any voltage, will be able to migrate to the free market.