Barriers for demand response participation in electricity markets and State aid support

The European Commission is conducting a study to identify barriers for the participation of Demand Response (DR) to wholesale electricity markets and State Aid (SA) mechanisms in the EU27 Member States (MSs). The focus of the study is on the so-called explicit demand response, i.e., demand response services provided by consumption units directly competing with other technologies in wholesale electricity markets and SA mechanisms, either individually or through aggregators.

Demand response offers consumers the opportunity to participate in the operation of electricity markets by reducing or shifting their consumption. DR’s involvement in electricity markets is increasingly important for mitigating high prices and tackling price volatility. It will play a crucial role in ensuring the resilience of the future energy system. In order to improve the efforts to promote competitive, consumer-centered, flexible and non-discriminatory electricity markets, consistently with EU Directive 944/2019, Member States should remove legal, commercial, financial and technical barriers hampering the participation of consumers in all electricity markets.

The general goal of the study is to collect qualitative and quantitative analytical inputs to identify the obstacles hampering the participation of demand response to electricity markets and State aid support schemes.

The European Commission is leading the study with the support of a consortium comprising joint partners BIP Consulting, Grimaldi Studio Legale and MRC Consultants and Transaction Advisers, combining an excellent insight into the energy sector, an in-depth State aid expertise, a detailed expertise on market and economic trends with core focus on the electricity market, and a wide network of experts in Europe.

The European Commission would like to hear your views.

Answer the survey to provide relevant information for the study.

GO TO THE SURVEY

Get involved in this initiative to improve the efforts to promote competitive, consumer-centered, flexible and non-discriminatory electricity markets. It is easy to share your opinion with the Commission – answer the survey by following this link

GO TO THE SURVEY

The survey aims at collecting relevant  information for the study, based on direct experience of stakeholders.

The following topics will be covered by the survey:

• Legal and regulatory, technical, market and financial barriers to the participation of DR in electricity markets. To this aim, the following markets for the whole set of EU27 Member States, will be considered: day-ahead market; intra-day market; ancillary services markets.
• Legal and regulatory, technical, market and financial barriers to the participation of DR in SA mechanisms.
• Sources of costs emerging for demand aggregators and individual DR from their participation in electricity markets and State-aid measures.

To this respect, the following types of questions will be addressed:

• Assessment of the relevance of the legal and regulatory, market, financial or technical barriers in limiting the diffusion of DR;
• Collection of opinions regarding the expected and foreseeable changes with respect to the regulatory and legislative framework concerning the diffusion of DR;
• Gathering of information concerning possible additional barriers hampering the diffusion of DR with respect to those already addressed by the survey.

The survey is addressed to every stakeholder wishing to share its views on the topic:

• Actors with an expertise on the topics involved by the scope of the survey;
• Actors with a responsibility to comply with the legislative and regulatory framework concerning DR and its participation in SA mechanisms and electricity markets.
• Actors affected by the market design recommendations;
• Actors with a responsibility for the definition and implementation of the market design recommendations;
• Actors who might have an interest in the topics covered by the survey

You can contribute to the survey in English.

Your contributions to the survey will be used to help us to further develop the content of the Study. The study team will not share the collected opinions and information with anyone outside the support study team and the EC services. The source of any opinion or information gleaned from the survey will not be revealed in any publicly available documentation related to the project.

To protect your identity and ensure confidentiality, references to your name or identity will be excluded from the final report.

In line with our commitment to confidentiality, we encourage you to express your opinions openly, knowing that your anonymity will be maintained, given the sensitive nature of your profession/position.

By means of this consultation webpage, updates concerning the stage of execution of the survey and any other relevant information will be provided to ensure a transparent treatment of contributions received.

Your opinion on the topic will be collected via a survey, starting from [September 27, 2023].

The survey will be open until [November 24, 2023].

Confidentiality is of utmost importance to us, and any data provided will be processed in a way that protects sensitive information and will be used strictly for the purpose of this study. Your personal data provided via this survey will be handled in strict accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Your data will be used solely for the purposes of this survey. We will not share your data with third parties without your explicit consent, and it will be securely stored and protected. If you have any questions about how your data is handled, please contact our Data Protection Officer at eu-demandresponsebarriers@dr-survey.eu