Abstract
Technological advancements facilitate the transition to a decentralised and smart distributed generation electricity system where active customers will have a key role. Such a transition can contribute to making the electricity systems cleaner, more secure, more efficient and less expensive. Nevertheless, the promotion of distributed generation requires reforms to the applicable legislation, so that it fits the new reality. Accordingly, the Commission has put forward a proposal for a new Directive on the common rules for the internal electricity market. This proposal shows the Commission’s support in distributed generation and focuses on the promotion of self-consumption, instead of net metering, and on the empowerment of electricity customers through smart meter technologies and secure data management and data protection regimes. This proposal might originate the development of a supranational legislative framework fitting technological innovation in the field of electricity, but it is rather a basic starting point. It remains to be seen how Member States will respond to these initiatives and how they will implement the relevant Directive, when—and if—enacted.
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Notes
- 1.
The model of sharing economy is founded on internet markets that allow ‘peer-to-peer’ transactions. Such digital markets facilitate the communication and transaction between owners that wish to rent out the durable goods they are not using and consumers who wish to make use of these goods. See Horton and Zeckhauser 2016; Einav et al. 2016.
- 2.
- 3.
Stein 2014.
- 4.
Cutler and Morris 2006, p. 120.
- 5.
European Commission 2016a.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
The term prosumers was introduced by the futurist Alvin Toffler. See Toffler 1971.
- 10.
Carvallo and Cooper 2006, p. 1.
- 11.
Tomain 2012.
- 12.
- 13.
Stein 2014.
- 14.
Lavrijssen 2017, p. 174.
- 15.
European Commission 2012a, p. 9. Distributed generation can be also based on combined heat and power systems, which do not belong to the renewable energy sources. Nevertheless, they are more efficient and, thus, less harmful for the environment than a traditional fossil fuel-based system.
- 16.
Council of the European Union 2018.
- 17.
European Commission 2012a, p. 10.
- 18.
European Commission, 2015a, p. 2.
- 19.
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
Umberger 2012.
- 23.
Kakran and Chanana 2018.
- 24.
Cutler and Morris 2006, p. 112.
- 25.
Galera Rodrigo 2016, pp. 67–68.
- 26.
See also Raskin 2014.
- 27.
Hordeski 2011, pp. 260–263.
- 28.
European Commission 2015c.
- 29.
European Commission 2015a.
- 30.
European Commission 2016a.
- 31.
European Parliament 2018.
- 32.
European Commission 2015b, p. 2.
- 33.
Commission, ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources (recast)’ COM(2016) 767 final.
- 34.
Council of the European Union 2018.
- 35.
- 36.
European Commission 2015b, p. 8.
- 37.
European Parliament 2018, recital 8.
- 38.
Lavrijssen and Carrillo 2017, ch. 4.2.
- 39.
- 40.
European Commission 2016b, pp. 140–142.
- 41.
Jacobs 2017.
- 42.
Raskin 2013.
- 43.
Butenko 2016, p. 710.
- 44.
Raskin 2014, p. 270.
- 45.
Graffy and Kihm 2014.
- 46.
Jacobs 2017.
- 47.
Rule 2014–15.
- 48.
Rule 2014–15.
- 49.
Raskin 2014.
- 50.
Iliopoulos 2016.
- 51.
- 52.
- 53.
Iliopoulos 2016.
- 54.
Raskin 2013, p. 51.
- 55.
European Commission 2013, pp. 12–13.
- 56.
Iliopoulos 2016.
- 57.
Raskin 2014.
- 58.
European Commission 2015b, p. 10.
- 59.
European Commission 2015b, p. 12.
- 60.
Augustine and McGavisk 2016.
- 61.
Jacobs 2017, p. 577.
- 62.
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Iliopoulos, T.G. (2019). Regulating Smart Distributed Generation Electricity Systems in the European Union. In: Reins, L. (eds) Regulating New Technologies in Uncertain Times. Information Technology and Law Series, vol 32. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-279-8_9
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