Table of contents
Our article we take a look at the second round of the utility bill cut, and in particular the November 2013 reduction of the price of electricity and natural gas. In addition to inspecting the impact that the utility bill cut delivered to the revenue of market players, we also examine the extent to which the continued reduction of regulated prices is in harmony with European electricity market trends, and we also analyse the burden posed by the second round of the utility bill cut to wholesalers with important positions in the electricity and natural gas markets.
Our article reviews the power plant investments of Hungary for the last few years. We seek to understand how the capacity balance of the country is affected by the completion of the investments launched before the crisis, and the power plants closures and cancelled investments driven by a deteriorating market environment. Has the security of supply eroded, is the system more difficult to operate than before, is there an increased need for regulatory intervention?
In the article we look at the problems of renewable support schemes and the corresponding reform concepts of the EU. Demand for support in excess of the capabilities and willingness of society and the central budget have resulted in ad-hoc regulatory interventions in a number of member states. Because of these regulatory deviations, in November 2013 the European Commission released its recommendations to reform renewable support schemes. We make use of the Czech and Romanian interventions to illustrate the potential regulatory solutions on the edge of what is legally still acceptable, then we review the main pillars of the reform plans of the EU targeting the "marketisation" of support schemes as well as the market integration of renewable producers.
The current regulatory instrument applied by the EU to curb the emission of greenhouse gases, the emission trading system (ETS) has for years been suffering from a substantial oversupply and low prices, thus in its current form it is not capable of reaching demanding emission reduction targets. A uniform climate protection "package of proposals" has been composed of the previous concepts to reform the ETS and the 2030 emission reduction targets. Our article we present the system of 2030 emission reduction targets and instruments, drafted by the European Commission in January 2014, to be finalised by the member states during 2014.
