Quality and Reliability of Electricity Supply – The role of the regulators and the authorities on the liberalized electricity market

摘要

The security and quality of electricity supply are the two of the most essential goals on the liberalized electricity market. From the consumers point of view the lower quality of supply could decrease or curtail the operation of its devices. Due to the liberalization the roles of production, supplying and trading of electricity have been completely separated. Whereas the electricity trading can be more or less competitive the competition in the transmission and distribution of the electricity can not be ensured by market principles. These naturally monopolistic activities have to be monitored and regulated by the independent state bodies.The liberalization has introduced the economic aspects into the pure technical industry. This approach is also stated in the definition of the reliability of supply formulated by Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER): "Ensuring of the electricity supply with requested volume, time schedule, parameters and with the lowest prices." The legislative and supporting services should be considered in order to ensure the reliability and security of electricity supply at the same time. The paper is intended as a description and introduction into the approaches which have been introduced in the Czech Republic in order to ensure the requested quality and reliability of supply. The paper describes the role of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Ministry), regulatory authority (ERO -Energy Regulatory Office), transmission system operator (CEPS) and market operator (OTE) regarding this issue.The Ministry of Industry and Trade is the central body of the government administration involved for example in the national industry policy, trade policy and the use of mineral resources, energy, gas and heat production. Energy Regulatory Office is the state authority responsible for supporting of the competition in the energy industry, supporting of the use of renewable and secondary energy sources and the protection of the consumers' interests in the areas of the energy industries, in which competition is not feasible. The principal mission of the transmission system operator is to guarantee the continuity and security of the power supply and to properly coordinate the production and consumption at any time. The specific role of the market operator is to organize the short-term markets and balancing market with regulating energy in cooperation with the transmission system operator and evaluation and settlement of the imbalances between the agreed and the actual electricity supplies and the consumption.The roles of these authorities in order to ensure the reliability and quality of supply are relatively close and the common goal is to minimize the regulated electricity prices. The paper also describes the parameters defining the requested quality and reliability of supply and services related to the regulated activities in power industry in all-European scope. Czech Republic as a member of the European Union has to observe the European legislation. Its recommendation should let to the increase of the quality of supply, quality of power system operation and reduction of the number and duration of the outages of the supply for the end-consumers.