Implementation of the Electricity Directive

The government has recently presented a bill¹ for the implementation of the revised EU Electricity Directive (2003/54/EC). The changes mainly concern the Electricity Act.² Since Sweden reformed its electricity market in 1996, the government must implement only a limited number of the directive's provisions.

Firstly, the directive's unbundling requirement will be implemented as regards to network undertakings belonging to a group of companies with at least 100,000 offtake/extraction points. A board member, managing director or authorized signatory may not occupy such positions simultaneously in an undertaking generating or trading electricity. Thus, the government decided to avail of the possibility afforded by the directive to exempt integrated electricity undertakings serving fewer than 100,000 customers from the unbundling requirements (the vast majority of the Swedish network undertakings serve fewer than 100,000 customers).