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EEC held the first meeting of the Advisory Committee for Electric Energy 

On November 23, the Advisory Committee for Electric Energy under the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) held its first meeting in Moscow, chaired by Member of the Board (Minister) for Energy and Infrastructure Danial Akhmetov.

The meeting was visited by the representatives from the Ministry of Energy of Belarus, the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Energy of Russia, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, as well as by the delegates from the major energy companies of the member-states of the Customs Union (CU) and the Common Economic Space (CES).

The key items of the agenda included the development of the concept and main provisions of the program for creating a common electric energy market and capacities in the CU and CES member-states, as well as review of the terms of reference for drafting the concept of creating a common electric energy market in the CES territory.

“Soon, the EEC will prepare a concept of creating a common electric energy market. Based on this concept, a serious program document will be drafted and adopted, which, as we expect, will make it possible to complete a common electric energy market in the CU and CES member-states in the near future,” Danial Akhmetov said at a media briefing.

He said that the common market would be based on free access to the infrastructure, a harmonized legal framework, and new technical regulations and standards.

“Wholesale market will be one of the main segments of the proposed common market structure. Besides, its structure will include markets of centralized sales and auxiliary services, and a balancing market,” the Member of the Board (Minister) for Energy and Infrastructure said.

He noted that the EEC would draft a balanced development program for the common electric energy market of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. “Once such program is adopted, the national electric energy development strategies of the CU and CES member-states will be sufficiently harmonized, and will also have progressive goals,” Danial Akhmetov explained.

The Member of the Board (Minister) for Energy and Infrastructure told that the common market would make it possible to tackle unique tasks related to increasing the efficiency of the energy complexes in the CU and CES member-states. “Currently, the efficiency factor of the generating capacities in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is approximately 60%. This means that the common market can considerably increase this indicator,” Danial Akhmetov said.

Answering the question of the journalists about the expected common market completion dates, Danial Akhmetov said that “the best experts from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia have already been engaged, so it can be completed rather soon. We expect that it can be done by January 1, 2015.”

Background information:

The main objectives behind the common electric energy market of the CES member-states include ensuring a stable growth of their national economies and energy security, protecting the interests of electricity consumers and producers, increasing cost efficiency and reliability of the energy sector, streamlining the use of primary energy resources, and building non-raw material export potential of the countries.

The common electric energy market will function based on such principles as openness and non-discriminatory access, fair competition, service availability and quality, compliance with regulations and principles of international law, market transparency, and the culture of equitable relations.

The effect from the creation of the common energy market will be manifested in more efficient use of energy capacities and infrastructure, greater investment attractiveness of energy projects, increased trade in electric energy, both within the Common Economic Space and with the neighbouring markets. This will ensure a balanced electric energy consumption, reduced generation costs and lower energy intensity of products in general.