On February 15, 2018 the Official Closure of the Twinning Project “Support the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine in the Process of Electricity Market Reform” took place.

The project was implemented by the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) together with Regulatory Office for Networking Industries (RONI) in order to strengthen the NEURC capability in the process of reforming the electricity market, in particular as regards the preparation of drafts of secondary legislation in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the Electricity Market” and the implementation of best practices and experience in regulating electricity markets in the EU Member States by the example of States from Vyshegrad group: Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary.

Сhairman of the NEURC, BC Project Leader Dmytro Vovk, greeted the participants of the event and outlined the importance of mutually beneficial cooperation between the project partners in the context of the electricity market reform, that will facilitate the access of third parties to electricity networks, the functioning of the retail market and consumer protection, as well as the implementation of new market segments.

Resident Twinning Adviser Kristian Takac, presented the main results of the project, in particular commentaries on the Codes of the transmission system operator and the distribution system operator, the Retail Market Rules were prepared, the draft Energy Community documents were discussed, commentaries on the draft rules of the NEURC “Market Rules” and “DAM rules “intraday”, procedure, reporting forms of indicators were improved etc.

The First Counsellor, Head of Operations Section “Energy, Transport, Environment, Climate Action” of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Johannes Baur, in his turn, emphasized that the mentioned Twinning project was the fourth project implemented by NEURC. In addition, the strategic importance of the project was underlined and the willingness of the European side to fully support NEURC in the area of electricity market reform after the project closure was expressed.

The event was attended by Twinning Project Experts from the EU Member States, representatives of NEURC and others.

On behalf of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union the event was attended by the Deputy Head of the Projects Management Unit Inna Bielobratova and the Senior Consultant of Twinning Coordination Division of the Projects Management Unit Yuliia Yerchenko.

For reference: according to Resolution of the Cabinet of Ukraine “On Approval of the Procedure for Initiation, Preparation and Implementation of the Twinning Projects” as of 11 October, 2016 No 700 the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service coordinates the implementation of the institution building instrument of the European Union Twinning in Ukraine. Furthermore, in accordance with relevant legal acts the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service is the coordinator of institution building instrument TAIEX implementation in Ukraine. In order to provide effective coordination of Twinning and TAIEX the Twinning Program Administration Office in Ukraine was established, its functions are performed by the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union.

The Twinning Project “Support the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine in the Process of Electricity Market Reform” covers 6 components:

• Component 1. Project support, coordination with ACER and EnC Secretariat, strengthened internal coordination with other stakeholders in Ukraine and specialized language training.
• Component 2. Functioning of electricity networks and access of market participants to electricity networks.
• Component 3. Electricity supply to consumers and consumer protection.
• Component 4. Support in the introduction of new electricity market segments (bilateral contracts, DAM, Intraday, Balancing Market and Ancillary Services Market).
• Component 5. Support in the introduction and conducting of regulatory monitoring functions on electricity market.
• Component 6. Support in the implementation of TSO and DSO unbundling and enabling NEURC to certify TSO.