Competition for private customers: Prospects for full achievement of internal energy market in Europe

Speaker: Mr. Gerhard Jochum, Member of Board, EnBW AG

The EU Directive on the internal electricity market has come into effect and it has been implemented into national laws. After two years of competition for private customers time is ripe to review the experiences made on this market that has been completely liberalised from a formal point of view.
• What are the difficulties faced by utilities in supplying private customers outside their historical areas? 
• Which legal regulations on the European level have still to be measured to garantee the full competition at the energy sector? 
• What conclusions should be drawn at the EU legislative level for the consultations currently dealing with fully liberalised markets?

EnBW board member Gerhard Jochum made a plea for fairer competition on the market for electricity.

After briefly explaining EnBW’s position and why it was pressing so hard for fair competition conditions – i.e. that EnBW has won more new customers than anyone else on the German Market and thus suffers most from obstacles to competition – he drew attention to the various distortions of and barriers to competition which still remained on the European market.

Jochum regretted the absence of binding rules on grid access and of a body able to create such rules and thereafter review them. Although he welcomed the creation of the Task Force within the Federal Ministry for the Economy he stressed that it needed to be properly staffed in order to guarantee fair competition and the rapid establishment of a level playing field.

EnBW was not interested in a theoretical discussion of whether or not it made sense to create a regulatory body with a staff of several hundred, but wanted fair competition and the rapid establishment of appropriate conditions.

During the discussion which followed, Jochum stressed that many had high hopes of the EU with regard to the liberalisation of the internal market and counted on its assistance. Rolf Linkohr, the President of the European Energy Foundation, stated that this issue would be tackled with care with a view to bringing about the greatest degree of market openness and fair competition conditions on the European energy market.