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26 MARCH 2014. - An Act to amend the Act of April 29, 1999 on the organization of the electricity market (1)

PHILIPPE, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 78 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. This Act partially transposes Directive 2005/89/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 18 January 2006 on measures to ensure the security of electricity supply and investment in infrastructure.
Art. 3. Section 2 of the Act of 29 April 1999 on the organization of the electricity market, last amended by the law of 26 December 2013, is supplemented by the 51°, 52°, 53° and 54° as follows:
"51°" winter period: period between 1^er November and March 31
52° "LOLE" : Loss Of Load Expectation, i.e. a statistical calculation by which is determined the expected number of hours during which the charge cannot be covered by all means of production available to the Belgian electricity grid, taking into account interconnections, for a statistically normal year;
53° "LOLE95": a statistical calculation by which is determined the expected number of hours during which the charge cannot be covered by all means of production available to the Belgian electricity network, taking into account interconnections, for a statistically exceptional year;
54° "situation of shortage": a situation close to the real time in which there is a significant probability that the load will not be covered by all means of production available to the Belgian electricity network, taking into account the import and energy available on the market. "
Art. 4. Section 4bis of the Act, inserted by the Act of 8 January 2012, is replaced by the following:
"Art. 4bis. § 1^er. For the purpose of ensuring the security of electricity supply and the security of the network, the final or temporary unscheduled shutdown of an electricity production facility must be notified to the Minister, the Commission and the network manager no later than July 31 of the year prior to the effective date of temporary or final shutdown.
A temporary arrest may only occur after March 31 of the year following the notification referred to in paragraph 1^er.
A final determination may only be made after September 30 of the year following the notification referred to in paragraph 1^er.
A notice of shut-off is required for any electrical production facility connected to the transport network, whether or not it has received an individual authorization in accordance with Article 4.
§ 2. After notice of the commission and the network manager, the King may determine the notification procedure referred to in § 1^erincluding the form and modalities of the notification.
§ 3. No temporary or final shutdown, whether programmed or not, may be made during the winter period.
§ 4. The provisions of this section do not apply to units covered by the Act of 31 January 2003 on the progressive release of nuclear energy for industrial electricity production.
Art. 5. In the same law, a chapter IIbis, comprising articles 7bis to 7novies, is inserted as follows:
"CHAPITRE IIbis. - Strategic reserve
Art. 7bis. § 1^er. By November 15 of each year, the network manager conducts a probabilistic analysis of the state of the country's supply security for the upcoming winter period.
§ 2. The level of supply security to be achieved is determined by:
1°, where applicable, of the harmonized standards established by the relevant European institutions;
2° in the absence of harmonized standards at the European level, the harmonized standards, if applicable at the regional level, particularly at the electricity market of the Western Centre of Europe;
3° in the absence of such standards, a calculation of LOLE less than 3 hours and LOLE95 less than 20 hours, by which the missing power volumes necessary to ensure supply security are determined.
§ 3. Prior to October 15 of each year, the Energy Branch shall make available to the Network Manager any information relevant to the analysis referred to in paragraph 1^er.
§ 4. The network manager shall take at least the following elements into account for his analysis referred to in § 1^er :
1° the production and storage capacities that will be available in the Belgian setting area for the period analyzed, on the basis of, inter alia, the stops scheduled in the development plan referred to in Article 13 and notifications received under Article 4bis;
2° the electric consumption forecast;
3° the possibilities for the importation of electricity taking into account the interconnection capabilities that the country will have and, if necessary, an estimate of the availability of electricity in the market of the Western Centre of Europe with regard to the country's energy supply.
The network manager may, in a reasoned manner, complete the elements identified in paragraph 1^er by any element he deems useful.
§ 5. The analysis referred to in paragraph 1^er is transmitted to the Energy Branch by the Network Manager.
Art. 7ter. At the latest, December 15 of each year, the Energy Directorate will provide the Minister with an opinion on the need to establish a strategic reserve for the next winter period.
If the notice concludes that such a reservation is necessary, it also includes a volume proposal for that reservation, expressed in MW. Where applicable, the Directorate General of Energy may propose a reserve notice of up to three consecutive winter periods.
If the volume proposal covers two or three consecutive winter periods, the proposal for volumes for the last (two) period(s) constitutes minimum levels required, which may be increased during the following annual procedures.
Art. 7quater. The Minister may, within one month of the date of receipt of the notice of the Energy Branch referred to in section 7ter, give the Network Manager an instruction to establish a strategic reserve for a period of one to three years from the first day of the upcoming winter period and determine the level of the reserve in MW. The Minister shall inform the Committee of this decision. The decision, analysis of the network manager and the opinion of the Energy Branch are posted on the Energy Branch website.
The volume determined in MW is determined by considering a permanent availability of MW power determined by the Minister. The contractualization by the network manager can lead to a power volume in MW higher than the level determined by the minister based on the predictable availability of the MWs offered to him. The network manager justifies the volume determined in MW that he proposes to take into account in his report prepared under Article 7Sexies, § 1^er.
Art. 7quinquies. § 1^er. After consultation with network users, the Commission and the Directorate General of Energy, the network manager defines the modalities of the process of establishing the strategic reserve. For the development of procedures for distribution network users, the network manager consults distribution network managers.
The procedure is published on the network manager's website.
§ 2. Any actor with localized power in the Belgian setting area corresponding to the specifications defined in the procedure terms and conditions may participate in the strategic reserve, provided that it meets one of the following characteristics:
1° any transport or distribution network user, individually or in an aggregate manner, via demand management offers;
2° any operator of a production facility whose date of stopping scheduled in the development plan referred to in Article 13 shall be taken before the beginning of the winter period referred to in the procedure and after the end of the winter period before the period covered by the procedure;
3° any operator of a production facility having made, prior to the instruction referred to in Article 7quater, a notification on the basis of Article 4bis and whose arrest is not yet effective;
4° any operator of a production facility having made a notification on the basis of Article 4bis and whose temporary stopping is effective.
§ 3. Operators referred to in § 2, 2° to 4° are required to provide at least one offer covering the entire capacity of the facility.
If an operator fails to comply with the obligation referred to in paragraph 1^erthe commission may impose an administrative fine in accordance with section 31.
§ 4. The network manager collects offers according to objective, transparent, non-discriminatory procedures and based on market rules.
For technical and/or economic reasons, the procedure can be organized in several lots.
The King may determine the basic principles of the procedure referred to in paragraph 1^er.
§ 5. The procedure for establishing the strategic reserve provides for sanctions in the event of poor performance of contractual obligations and lack of understanding of the operating rules referred to in Article 7s.
§ 6. The network manager initiates the process of establishing the strategic reserve no later than the month following the Minister's decision under section 7quater. The delivery of the offers will take place within two months of the commencement of the procedure.
Art. 7sexies. § 1^er. No later than thirty business days after the final date of tendering, the network manager shall communicate to the commission and the Minister a report on all bids received, including supporting documents and on the prices and volumes offered to it for the provision of strategic reserves, including a technical-economic proposal for a combination of bids.
§ 2. The commission shall not later than thirty working days after receipt of the report referred to in § 1^er a specific and motivated notice if the price of the combination of offers proposed by the network manager for the provision of strategic reserves is manifestly unreasonable or unreasonable.
§ 3. Where the Commission's notice considers the offers that are part of the technical-economic proposal of the network manager as non-reasonable, the network manager shall contract such offers for the duration of the decision of the Minister referred to in section 7quater from 1^er November of the current year.
When the notice of the commission considers the proposal made by the network manager to be manifestly unreasonable, the King may, notwithstanding section V.2 of the Economic Law Code, on the proposal of the Minister, on behalf of the security of supply, impose on one or more bidders whose offer was deemed manifestly unreasonable by the commission, from 1^er November of the current year, for a period of between one year and the period provided for in the Minister's decision under section 7quater, the prices and volumes required by Royal Decree. Prices and volumes may differ from one bidder to another to take into account the technical-economic specificities of each. The volumes imposed may be different from the volumes submitted under the procedure referred to in Article 7quinquies, taking into account the technical-economic constraints.
When the Commission's notice considers the proposal made by the network manager to be manifestly unreasonable, this notice also contains the measures recommended by the commission.
When the King imposes prices and volumes, the winning bidders respect the terms and conditions defined under Article 7quinquies used as part of the tender.
Art. 7s. § 1^er. The network manager submits to the Commission for approval the operating rules of the strategic reserve, in which, among other things, the indicators taken into account to see a shortage situation and the principles relating to the activation of strategic reserves by the network manager. The network manager publishes the rules approved on his website no later than the day the procedure was launched in section 7quinquies.
§ 2. The operating rules of the strategic reserve guarantee the proper behaviour of market actors in order to avoid situations of shortage.
These rules also ensure that the portion of the capacity contracted in the strategic reserve under production can only be activated by the network manager.
The operating rules aim to limit to the maximum the interference of the strategic reserve with the operation of the interconnected electricity market.
Differentiated operating rules may be allowed in order to allow the creation of several lots as long as duly motivated technical requirements impose it in the procedure referred to in Article 7quinquies.
Art. 7octies. The cost of the strategic reserve is covered by a tariff overload to finance the public service obligation of the network manager as referred to in Article 12, § 5, paragraph 2, 11°. This overload is subject to Commission approval. This cost consists of costs incurred by the network manager under the contracts entered into following the procedure provided for in Article 7quinquies and, where applicable, those resulting from an imposition by the King to bidders in accordance with Article 7sexies, deducting any net income generated by the activation of the capacities contracted in accordance with the rules referred to in Article 7ssepties.
The costs of management and development that this activity induces for the network manager are covered by appropriate regulatory mechanisms provided for in the tariff methodology referred to in section 12.
Art. 7novies. The provisions of this chapter do not apply to units covered by the Act of 31 January 2003 on the phase-out of nuclear energy for industrial electricity production. "
Art. 6. § 1^er. For units that have been notified of a non-programmed temporary or final stop prior to the effective date of this Act, the minimum period between the notification date and the effective stop is 15 months. If the effective stopping date occurs during the winter period, the 15-month period is extended to the last day of the winter period.
§ 2. As a transitional measure, the Directorate General of Energy, the Network Manager and the Commission shall enter into an agreement as soon as possible on the implementation schedule for the year 2014 of the various stages set out in sections 7bis to 7septies. This schedule may deviate from the deadlines set out in these articles. The agreement is published on the website of the network and commission manager.
Art. 7. This Act comes into force on the day of its publication in the Belgian Monitor
Promulgate this law, order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels, March 26, 2014.
PHILIPPE
By the King:
The Minister of the Interior,
Ms. J. MILQUET
The Secretary of State for Energy,
Mr. WATHELET
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. A. TURTELBOOM
____
Note
House of Representatives:
(www.lachambre.be)
Documents: 53-3357 - 2013/2014.
Full report: 13 March 2014.
Senate:
(www.senate.be)
Documents: 5 - 2743 - 2013/2014.