LIBERALISATION OF THE ESTONIAN GAS MARKET
management and allocation of interconnection capacity;
mechanisms to deal with congested capacity within the national system;
the time taken by transmission and distribution undertakings to make connections and repairs;
the effective unbundling of accounts to avoid cross subsidies and the unbundling compliance programme;
organisation, monitoring and control of the tendering procedure for generation;
deciding on derogations in relation to take-or-pay commitments for gas; and
dispute settlement arrangements for access to upstream gas pipelines.
C.1.2
Associations of regulators
Europe’s national regulators of electricity and gas cooperate at an international level through a number of associations. Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) is a voluntary organization of independent energy regulatory bodies primarily from the Central European and Eurasian regions, with affiliates from Africa, Middle East and the United States. Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) is a non-for-profit association, where the national regulators cooperate and exchange best practice. A key objective of the CEER is to facilitate the creation of a single, competitive, efficient and sustainable EU internal energy market that works in the public interest. CEER works closely with and supports the work of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). ACER, which has its seat in Ljubljana, is an EU Agency with its own staff and resources. CEER, based in Brussels, deals with many complementary (and not overlapping) issues to ACER’s work such as international issues, smart grids, sustainability and customer issues. C.1.3
The role of Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is a European Union body established in 2010. The aim of the agency is to assist National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) in exercising the regulatory tasks in gas and electricity areas that they perform in the Member States and to coordinate their action. ACER monitors European Networks of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO), NRAs, cross-border infrastructure, provides consultations and transparency to market participants and reports on the electricity and gas sectors. ACER is assisting the entry into force of the third energy package and setting of a firm regulatory, institutional and political background to achieve completion of the internal energy market by 2014. In 2006, the previous regulator, ERGEG, under the framework of Regional Initiatives created seven electricity and three gas regions (North West, South South-East and South) as an interim step to complete the single energy market. At present, Baltic States are not a part of any of these regions. According to the Gas Regional Initiatives, ACER and the European Commission promote the integration of the gas markets in close cooperation with the stakeholders of the gas
PÖYRY MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
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