BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 13
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia’s adoption of the Law on Energy and Water Supply is a landmark development as it sets a clear path towards the development of a competitive energy market in line with European principles, Director of Energy Community Secretariat, Janez Kopac told Trend.
"But this is only the start of the reform process as the greater part of the work still lies ahead," he said.
According to Kopac, the bulk of the secondary legal acts, which are needed to put the market principles envisaged under the law into practice, are yet to be adopted.
"In the electricity sector, reforms are on track with the Electricity Market Concept Design, which sets the framework for day-ahead, balancing and ancillary services markets to be launched by 1 July 2021, adopted in April 2020. The Georgian Energy Exchange has been established and the organized market is in the testing phase," he noted.
As Kopac noted, things are developing a bit slower in the gas sector, where the Natural Gas Market Concept Design and Rules are yet to be adopted. According to the Law, the Design Concept should be adopted in October this year, while the adoption of the Rules should follow in the course of the following year.
"The next critical point is the unbundling of transmission and distribution system operators. This is required to ensure free and transparent third-party access to the network in order to encourage competition, improve the quality of service, and positively impact price dynamics. Once again, this process has already started in the electricity sector, where the unbundling of transmission and distribution system operators should be finalized by the end of 2020. In the gas sector, this should be finalized in the course of 2021," he added.
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