German coalition to boost energy market competition
FRANKFURT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's incoming centre-right government plans to boost competition in energy wholesale markets, its coalition deal with the Free Democrats showed over the weekend.
It will zero in on the traded markets for electricity, which consumers say are still dominated by leading utility companies and seek to further cut the number of market areas in the newly emerging German gas wholesale market, the document said.
The goals could curtail companies' profit potential from formerly less regulated activities and are in contrast to more generous leeway promised to nuclear operators for lengthening the life cycles of their plants.
"We want to further strengthen the competitive structures of the energy markets," the document said.
"We will build up a market transparency unit and empower it to obtain information to safeguard transparent price building mechanisms in the wholesale power market."
The writers of the draft also pledged to help clear up bottlenecks hampering cross-border power trading in the European Union, which the EU Commission wants to boost as part of its drive to create a single energy market across the bloc.
Germany would ensure that income from cross-border power auctions is reinvested in boosting grid capabilities, it said.
The document also said the government would firm up access rights to gas pipeline grids, which are still mainly controlled by a few market incumbents years after liberalisation.
"...we will draw up the law for this anew and ease access of competitors (to the dominant players) to unused gas transport and storage capacities," it said.
"The number of gas market zones is meant to go down to a maximum two (from currently six)," it added, without giving a time schedule.
Merged gas transport regions will enable operators in the 1,000-terawatt hours-per year gas market to engage in easier and more dynamic trading of supplies in the centre of Europe.
For a factbox on German parties' energy policy plan please click on [ID:nLN302542]
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, Editing by Nigel Hunt)
