ACER consultancy study on incentivising efficient investments in electricity grids
What is it about?
Significant enhancement in electricity grid capacity is needed to realise Europe’s decarbonisation objectives and ensure a high level of security of supply.
In the context of the European Commission’s EU Action Plan for Grids, ACER is looking at best practices to promote smart grids and network efficiency technologies through tariff design.
ACER has thus commissioned the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) to conduct a study on existing regulatory frameworks and how regulators could incentivise a more efficient use of existing and future electricity grids.
What is in the consultant’s report?
Building on the previous research conducted by FSR on behalf of ACER, this new report by FSR presents:
- An overview of regulatory practices in Europe, the United States and Australia that promote innovation and efficiency in electricity transmission investments.
- A new regulatory scheme which focuses on the value projects bring (i.e. benefit) and not on their costs. By sharing this benefit between the grid user and grid operator, a stronger incentive for technology-neutral solutions is created while mitigating the tariff increase (in comparison to the business as usual, e.g. investing into infrastructure alone).