The controversial ban proposed by the EWRC against the pooling of the balancing groups was adopted on 24.12.2022 with changes in the Electricity trading rules (ETR). The Regulator did not wait for the answer of the European Commission to the questions asked about the effects of such a change and accepted the amendments to the ETR.
The main reason why the majority of market participants opposed such a ban was that it would lead to an increase in balancing energy costs and a corresponding increase in the final price of electricity. All of this in a situation with record wholesale electricity prices, where many businesses are experiencing difficulties and even stopped operations.
The negative impact of the decision became obvious as early as January 2022, when some of the suppliers and coordinators of balancing groups informed their customers – producers and end users – that the cost of balancing services will be increase as of February 1, 2022. In addition, from a number of coordinators was requested a renewal of the collaterals provided to the Electricity System Operator (ESO). In some cases, there was an increase in collateral more than 100 times, and out of several thousand, the collateral exceeded millions. We are starting to see how the ban directly affects the majority of market participants leading to an increase of costs.
We have already discussed the detailed reasons for the negative effects of the EWRC’s decision on the market in another publication: HERE
