Albania narrows compliance gap in the electricity sector

On 15 May 2020, the Albanian Parliament adopted amendments to the Power Sector Law of 2015. The amendments tackle a number of issues in relation to Albania’s compliance with the electricity acquis.

The amendments address partially the non-compliances identified by the Secretariat in Case ECS-4/17. The case relates to the lack of transposition into national legislation of requirements on independent decision-making of distribution system operators (DSO) and the establishment of a compliance officer and programme stipulated by Electricity Directive 2009/72/EC. Albania is now required to complete the adoption of national measures to ensure effective unbundling of the DSO in practice. The Secretariat is ready to verify and confirm compliance with the requirements for effective functional unbundling of distribution from supply.

The amended Power Sector Law also addressed the conditions imposed in the Secretariat’s Opinion and the regulatory authority’s final certification decision of the electricity transmission system operator (TSO), OST, related to the transfer of tasks from the Ministry of Energy to the current TSO owner the Ministry of Economy.

Unfortunately, the amendments to the Power Sector Law do not rectify a breach of the eligibility requirements introduced by the previous amendments. They also fail to introduce powers of the regulatory authority for transposition of the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT), including an appropriate penalty regime.