Bulletin

 Agenda

 Participant List

  Materials

BULLETIN

Legal Regulation Working Group Meeting

The Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) organized the Legal Regulation Working Group meeting on March 3-4, 2005, in Budapest, Hungary. The meeting was co-hosted by the Hungarian Energy Office (HEO), the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) and the U.S. National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The aim of the meeting was to promote better understating of the legal regulatory issues evolving in energy regulation among ERRA members. Representatives from 20 ERRA member organizations participated, in addition 2 US and 1 Austrian regulator attended this meeting.

The meeting started with welcoming comments by Mr. J.Ferenc Horvath, the President of the Hungarian Energy Office addressed to the participants, which was followed by the election of the Vice-Chairperson of the Legal Regulation Working Group. Ms. Oprea was elected as a Vice-Chairwoman for a two-year term.

After introductory remarks by Ms. Carmen Oprea, Head of Legal Office, Romanian Heat and Electricity Regulatory Authority, the participants had discussions on the ERRA Legal Glossary.

The first day of the meeting focused on several issues such as Cooperation between energy regulator and other authorities / Mr. Daniel Vitanyi, Hungarian Energy Office/, Electricity theft in relation with governance indicators, political climate, corruption, and measures for reduction and The Athens process - creation of the Energy Community in South East Europe / Ms. Carmen Oprea, Romanian Heat and Electricity Regulatory Authority, as well as the Rights and responsibilities (from the legal point of view) of the electricity generator / Mr. Eduart Elezi, Electricty Regulatory Authority, Albania/. Ms. Malgorzata Szczepanska, Polish Energy Regulatory Office, and Mr. Thomas Gruber, Energie-Control GmbH, Austria presented the latest amendments of the Energy Law in their countries within the framework of the topic on Fulfillment of EU Directive 2003/54/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity.

The news in the Kyrgyz legislation on the energy sector law were introduced by Ms. Olga Serova / State Energy Agency under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic/, and Ms. Galiya Joldybayeva /Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies, Kazakhstan/ had a report on improvement of the legislation on natural monopolies in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Ms. Krisztina Kasza / Program Director, ERRA Secretariat/ briefly introduced the past and future activities of ERRA.

The second day focused on presentations made by Mr. Laurence G. Chaset /California Public Utilities Commission/ and Ms. Shannon Smith / Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission/ on Transparency versus confidentiality in the electricity sector in the United States, on Rules, policies and contractual arrangements to restrain the exercise of market power by electricity generators in the United States in the wake of "electricity market restructuring", as well as on Interagency conflict and cooperation in the regulation and oversight of the power industry at the state level in the United States.

The workshop continued with presentations on harmonization of legislation in ERRA countries / Mr. Evlampie Donos, National Energy Regulatory Agency, Moldova, on the issues of appeal process and sanctions / Ms. Antonida Tarasenko / National Electricity Regulatory Commission of Ukraine/ and on Legal Regulation at the Federal Tariff Service of Russia /Ms. Irina Migunova /Federal Tariff Service, Russia/

Finally, participants of the Workshop on Legal Regulation approved the Workplan for 2005-2006 and the final version of the Legal Glossary.

Participants of the ERRA Legal Regulation Working Group highly appreciated the meeting and the importance of information exchange.

By Jargalan Jambardorj, ERRA

Agenda

March 3 (Thursday)
Metropol Hotel Villány Conference Room

Participant List

Transparency versus Confidentiality