In December 2019, the European Network of Transmission System operators for Electricity, ENTSO-E, asked stakeholders to comment on the organisation’s proposal for a Methodology for a European Resource Adequacy Assessment (ERAA). The purpose of the ERAA is to assess the risks to a secure supply of electricity over the next 10 years. These public comments were required as a part of the Clean Energy for All Europeans legislative packet.

The Regulatory Assistance Project responded to this request for comment on the ERAA methodology, stating that the current methodology draft would benefit from considerable refinement. For instance, parts of the draft were underdeveloped and require significant revisions.

We also find that the proposed methodology is unnecessarily conservative. With proper modification, it can better assess the resources available on the supply side and the demand side to avoid overestimating the risks to consumers. The current method suggests relying heavily on past European experiences. To better understand the rapid changes facing the power sector and to be prepared for future energy needs, we encourage ENTSO-E to look for relevant European and international experiences when redrafting its methodology.

In the comments, we provide further details. The list of comments is not exhaustive but does represent key priority areas where we believe the proposed methodology would benefit from improvement.

We submitted our comments to ENTSO-E in January 2020. To improve clarity, the document published here is slightly modified from the version submitted to ENTSO-E; all original points and comments have been left unchanged.