BULLETIN

 The Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) organized the Legal Regulation Working Group meeting on March 27-28, 2006, in Budapest, Hungary. The meeting was organized by the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA), supported by the U.S. National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Representatives from 18 full ERRA membership organizations participated, namely from Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, in addition Associate Members were represented by Romanian Natural Gas Regulatory Authority, UNMIK Kosovo, as well 2 US and a regulator from Finland attended this meeting.

The meeting started with welcoming comments by Vice President István Pataki, of the Hungarian Energy Office, which was followed by the election of the Chairperson of the Legal Regulation Working Group. Mr. Margus Kasepalu, Deputy Director General of the Estonian Energy Market Inspectorate was elected as a Chair for a two-year term.

After the introductory remarks, Ms. Viola Dozsa, Senior Program Manager of the ERRA Secretariat initiated discussion of the Workplan for 2006 which was followed by updates on Legal Issues by Committee Members.

The first day of the meeting focused on Comparative Paper: Status, Functioning, and Role of the Regulator. Mr. Kari Lavaste of Energy Market Authority, Finland gave a presentation on the role, status and functioning of regulator in Finland, whereas Ms. Kimberly Joyce shared with the audience the status and functioning of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Ms. Vilma Adamaviciute, of National Control Commission for Prices and Energy, Lithuania and Ms. Merita Kostari of Energy Regulatory Office, Kosovo introduced Status (independence of regulator (functional and financial), legal position of regulatory bodies, structure and share of authority among state agencies); Role of regulator (authorities and competencies, involvement in social issues, monitoring and enforcement; consumer protection and consumers’ rights, clear market rules, restructuring of the electricity sector); Functioning of Regulator (Procedure of approval, treatment of confidential information; public hearings; appeal of regulatory decisions).

The presentations were followed by roundtable discussions and Issue Paper development on the topic of the Access to Data and Public Availability. Prior to the meeting the Representatives to the WG had to answer to a preliminary questionnaire and Ms. Irina Migunova of Federal Tariff Service of Russian Federation (FTS) with Ms. Viktoria Morozova of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission of Ukraine (NERC) were selected to take the lead on developing an issue paper for further discussion at the fall meeting and completion by the end of the year.

The second day focused on Case Studies on Licensing Conditions (license content, function of license, scope of license conditions and its interaction with legislation). Country specific aspects of this theme were highlighted in the presentations of Commissioner Steve Gaw of Missouri Public Service Commission, USA: Ms. Ana-Maria Stanciulescu of National Electricity and Heat Regulatory Authority, Romania: Mr. Evlampie Donos of National Energy Regulatory Agency, Moldova and Ms. Olga Serova of National Antimonopoly and Competition Development Agency, Kyrgyz Republic.

In the afternoon, Commissioner Steve Gaw of Missouri Public Service Commission, USA and Ms. Kimberly Joyce of Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, USA delivered presentations on Legal Framework for Electricity Capacity Markets.

08:30 Case Studies on Licensing Conditions

1. How (using what principle) should the regulator establish conditions of a licensee?
   1. Should conditions of a licensee be set up within legal acts and the regulator in the license includes or rewrites only provisions within the parameters of the existing legal acts?
   2. Should conditions of a licensee be set up within legal acts and the regulator in the license specifies these conditions attributing to concrete license holder?
   3. Should part of the conditions of licenses be set up within legal acts and part should be set up by the regulator’s discretion (by which principles they should be set up)?
   4. Should the conditions of licenses not be set up within legal acts and instead set up only by the regulator’s discretion (by which principles they should be set up)?
2. The license in general is permission. The activity of a service provider (rights, duties/obligations etc.) highly is stipulated by legal acts however relationships between service provider and user are set up by contract. What content do the license conditions have? What is the function of a license? In general – what is the scope of license conditions and how do license conditions interact with legal acts, with public service contract and at the end with real life?

08:30 Commissioner Steve Gaw, Missouri Public Service Commission, USA
09:15 Ms. Ana-Maria Stanciulescu, Head of Legal Office, National Electricity and Heat Regulatory Authority, Romanian
10:00 Mr. Evlampie Donos, Head of Legal and Consumer Protection Department, National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), Moldova

10:45 Coffee break

11:00 Licensing Conditions (cont’d)
Ms. Olga Serova, Deputy Head of the Methodology, Legal and International Cooperation Department, National Antimonopoly and Competition Development Agency, Kyrgyz Republic
11:30 Questions & Answers

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Legal Framework for Electricity Capacity Markets
Commissioner Steve Gaw, Missouri Public Service Commission, USA
14:15 Ms. Kimberly Joyce, Assistant Counsel, Law Bureau, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, USA
15:00 Questions & Answers

15:30 Meeting Concludes

15:45 Excursion to Szentendre and group dinner