At the end of May, the Parliament rejected the citizens’ initiative to control the price of electricity, as it has rejected more than 90 percent of the initiatives taken in ten years, according to Sitra.
So was this here? The initiative that called for rationalization of the price of electricity and a ceiling price ended up in society’s trash can. No way. The citizens’ initiative received a truly rare and exceptional unanimous reception from the MPs.
Worked on it finance committee considered the citizens’ initiative to be a very important and timely opening, as the functionality of the electricity market is a basic requirement for modern society and economy.
It is difficult to implement a price ceiling
So what happened? The committee and the parliament considered the electricity price cap regulation presented in the initiative to be a matter that is not suitable to be implemented as such. The boundary conditions of the EU regulation also do not make it possible to implement price ceiling regulation in the electricity retail market. Therefore, the proposal of the initiative was rejected.
But instead, the economic committee considered the core goal behind the citizens’ initiative, the availability of affordable electricity, and that it be promoted with other measures, as a key issue. For this purpose, the committee prepared for the approval of the parliament nine statements to improve the electricity market.
The parliament accepted the statements exceptionally unanimously and they were given as a warning Petteri Orpon (kok) to the government for implementation.
So now we are waiting for what the government and especially the minister responsible for energy will do Kai Mykkänen (kok) can get things done in the ministry. Two statements particularly catch the eye, and they are partly related to each other.
In order to increase the transparency of the electricity market, the Parliament demands that researchers have access to all the necessary market and consumption information. Now the Energy Agency has prevented this, referring to EU regulations, which elsewhere could have been interpreted slightly differently.
The temptation to manipulate the price is clear.
At the same time, the parliament requires the supervision of the wholesale and retail electricity markets and the cooperation of the authorities to be made more effective than the current one. According to MPs, the risk of market manipulation of the electricity market is real.
Speed up cooperation between agencies
The message is addressed directly to both the Energy Agency and the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority. There is much to be desired in the cooperation of the agencies. There are also some shortcomings in the legislation, which may have prevented a reasonable exchange of information between agencies. We now want to clearly increase the risk of getting caught.
The MPs’ view of the situation is justified. An increase in the price of one megawatt hour on an average winter day’s consumption means an additional cost of 300,000 euros for the payers during one day. The temptation to manipulate the price is clear.
Parliament’s will to improve the electricity market is refreshingly unanimous.
The author is the editor-in-chief of Kauppalehti.
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