It aims to establish a minimum threshold of transparency, and organization and dissemination across the European market in regard to wholesale market information.

ERGEG invites stakeholders to comment on the general requirements of the Guidelines, and invites specific pointers on:

Load
Transmission and Access to Interconnections
Generation
Balancing and
Other Information from the Wholesale Markets.

Any comments should be received by 10 May 2006 and should be sent by email to [email protected]. Following the public consultation period, ERGEG will publish all comments received from stakeholders, unless requested to treat their contribution with confidentiality.

ERGEG considers that the publication of information on the general principles governing the minimum level of transparency will help in providing a reference tool to regulators and market participants, in particular in Member States where no specific legal framework concerning transparency has been defined to date.

Accounting for national characteristics, a comprehensive specification on transparency requirements from primary fuel across to supply and demand, would greatly assist the effort towards harmonization of an internal energy market, says ERGEG. Confidentiality shall in appropriate cases be respected.

EWEA welcomes the proposition that national regulatory authorities - and competition authorities - shall be equipped with the adequate powers to require sufficient evidence of ringfencing and “firewalls” between supply and/or generation and the transmission/distribution branch of vertically integrated companies.

The other track of the guidelines concerns disclosure and dissemination of crucial market information held by TSOs or DSOs such as on demand forecast data, generation availability (planned and unplanned), network and interconnection availability, and load and future investment. The basic principle is that information should be made accessible and disclosed on a non-discriminatory basis.

Cross-border trade necessitates such information to be more open and properly governed. ERGEG says that market players in one market have a legitimate interest in the information management processes in neighbouring markets and hence require an input to any governance processes. ERGEG has tabulated the guidelines to make them specific.

A detailed description and background of the main issues in the ERGEG Guidelines for Good Practice on Information Management and Transparency in Electricity Markets is contained in the accompanying cover note.