Energy Community Distribution System Operators for Electricity launch position paper on quality of service

Today, the Energy Community Distribution System Operators for Electricity (ECDSO-E) launched a position paper on the quality of service. The position paper, focusing on power outages, voltage quality and customer care and services, outlines recommendations to improve electricity quality regulation at the level of the Contracting Parties and their harmonization at the Energy Community level. The paper aims to trigger discussions on these issues with national regulatory authorities and other stakeholders. 

The position paper was prepared by an ECDSO-E Task Force which, with the assistance of the Secretariat, conducted a mapping of existing information and activities in the Contracting Parties via questionnaires using the same indicators as the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) uses in its benchmarking reports. 

The paper underlines that in all Contracting Parties the distribution system operators have a legal responsibility to ensure the required level of quality of service in the network, which is compliant with national legislation based on the Third Energy Package and, in particular, Directive 2009/72/EU concerning common rules on internal market in electricity. However, the monitoring of this capability and measuring how DSOs comply with these requirements are not consistently defined in the implementing legislation, resulting in significant differences in the level of observed quality indicators among DSOs and Contracting Parties, as well as in defined quality standards, where such exist.  

The position paper concludes that whereas DSOs are committed to continuously improve the quality of service and increase the level of guaranteed quality standards, it is equally important that regulatory authorities and network users understand and acknowledge the associated costs and make as fair as possible the trade-offs between the quality and costs of service. 

The next step will be defining Energy Community Policy Guidelines on quality of service. 

At the same time, the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) is preparing input for the 7th CEER benchmaking report on the quality of electricity and gas supply. The report, which will cover Contracting Parties and EU Member States, is scheduled to be published at the end of the year.