EC Approves Electrical Utilities Joint Venture for Central Western Europe
August 15, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
The European Commission (EC) approved the creation of a joint venture, Capacity Allocation Service Company (CASC), to provide cross-border electrical capacity allocation services to the interconnectors in Central Western Europe.
The approval, done under the EC's "Merger Regulation," seeks to harmonize the long-term auctions of power transmission capacity by creating a one-stop-shop for electricity market participants.
The parties to the venture include CEGEDEL Net S.A. of Luxemburg, ELIA System Operator SA/NV of Belgium, EnBW Transportnetze AG of Germany, E.ON Netz GmbH of Germany, RTE EDF Transport SA of France, RWE Transportnetz Strom GmbH of Germany and TenneT TSO BV of Netherlands.
All parties are electrical power transmission system operators, responsible for the operation of the high-voltage transmission grids in their respective control area.
After study, the EC concluded that the proposed joint venture would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it.
The creation of CASC aims at implementing Regulation (EC) No. 1228/2003, passed by the European Parliament and of the European Council of Ministers, on the conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity.
The main benefit of harmonizing the long-term auctions would be that market participants requesting cross-border capacities in the Central Western Europe region could approach one auction office instead of having to deal with a number of different offices and rules.
The EC's examination of the proposed venture showed that there were no horizontal overlaps between the transmission networks of the participating electricity transmission system operators.
Moreover, given the limited size and scope of the joint venture's activities, its creation would not enhance the risk of any coordinated behavior between the vertically integrated energy groups to which most of the parties to the joint venture belong.
Therefore, the EC concluded that the proposed venture would not raise any competition concerns.
More information on the case is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m103.html#m_5154.
Source: European Commission.