The legal problems of the electricity sector

Abstract

This work summarizes the evolution of the Spanish electricity law since the beginning of the twentieth century, from a first period of local authorizations followed by the electricity of supply declaration as public service, to the so called legal electricity framework approved in 1987, and the 1997 national Law that fully transposed the 96/92/EC EU Directive reviewed in 2003. Those rules were focussed on the development of common rules in the internal electricity market which promotes competition in the sector at the generation and retailing level, based upon the legal techniques of third party access and unbundling, that requires a degree of separation between the networks owners and the competitive agents. With this spirit and under these rules were transposed to the Spanish law.

Furthermore, the work reviews some of the most relevant jurisprudence on this subject, regarding services of general economic interest and exclusive rights EU doctrine.

Finally a brief analysis of the last EU electricity package launched by the European Commission is studied regarding mainly to the implementation of the third party access —connection charges and access tariffs—, unbundling regulation, and the creation of the EU Energy Agency.