A Bill amending the Electricity Market Act passed the second reading in the Riigikogu

NordenBladet —

At today’s sitting, the Riigikogu concluded the second reading of the Bill that will transpose the relevant Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the amendments made in respect of common rules for the internal market in electricity.

The amendments to the Bill on Amendments to the Electricity Market Act and Other Acts (426 SE), initiated by the Government, will increase opportunities for distributed generation through a regulation concerning active users of network services. This will give consumers an opportunity to participate more actively in the electricity market and to benefit in particular from changing their consumption habits. The Bill also provides for a regulation relating to the creation, development and management of energy communities, as well as a regulation concerning aggregation and demand response, in order to increase the flexibility of networks, and energy efficiency for consumers. An obligation to procure flexibility mechanisms from the market through tendering procedures will be provided for for network operators. The Bill also sets requirements for network operators to develop market-based charging networks for electric vehicles.

The Bill will also make amendments to the Electricity Market Act and the Natural Gas Act that will enable fixed price contracts for a specified term on more favourable conditions for consumers. The Government, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications as well as market participants have pointed out the need to increase the flexibility of the contracts among various measures to mitigate the energy price crisis. In connection with the amendments, the provisions in the Law of Obligations Act will also be amended in the interests of clarity.

During the debate, Sven Sester (Isamaa), Siim Kallas (Reform Party), Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa), Jüri Jaanson (Reform Party), Heiki Hepner (Isamaa) and Peeter Ernits (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) took the floor.

The Faction Isamaa moved to suspend the second reading of the Bill. 19 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of the motion and 46 voted against. Thus, the motion was not supported and the second reading of the Bill was concluded.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

The video recording of the sitting will be available on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
(Please note that the recording will be uploaded with a delay.)

Source: Parliament of Estonia