The Days after Croatia’s Accession to the EU – Energy Review

Will new rules of the game improve competitiveness on the Croatian energy market?

Transposition of the Third Energy Package into Croatian law

On 1 July 2013, Croa­t­ia joined the EU inter­nal mar­ket, which is expect­ed to fur­ther open up the ener­gy mar­ket to poten­tial domes­tic and for­eign investors in the com­ing peri­od. As part of Croa­t­i­a’s prepa­ra­tion for the EU mem­ber­ship, it was cru­cial to trans­pose the Third Ener­gy Pack­age into the nation­al law.

The new legal frame­work

To this end, in the course of 2012 and 2013 the fol­low­ing key ener­gy-relat­ed laws have entered into force:

• Ener­gy Act (Zakon o energi­ji) on 11 Novem­ber 2012;
• Act on the Reg­u­la­tion of Ener­gy Activ­i­ties (Zakon o reg­u­laciji ener­get­skih dje­lat­nos­ti) on 11 Novem­ber 2012;
• Elec­tric­i­ty Mar­ket Act (Zakon o tržiš­tu elek­trične energi­je) on 2 March 2013;
• Gas Mar­ket Act (Zakon o tržiš­tu plina) on 8 March 2013;
• Min­ing Act (Zakon o rudarstvu) on 18 May 2013;
• Hydro­car­bons Explo­ration and Pro­duc­tion Act (Zakon o istraži­van­ju i eksploat­aci­ji ugljikovodi­ka) on 30 July 2013.

Nev­er­the­less, a whole set of sec­ondary leg­is­la­tion, which will ensure the full and effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the above-men­tioned laws, remains to be adopt­ed.

In order to strength­en the inde­pen­dence and func­tions of the Croa­t­ian Ener­gy Reg­u­la­to­ry Agency (Hrvats­ka ener­get­s­ka reg­u­la­tor­na agen­ci­ja; HERA), the nation­al reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ty has been vest­ed with greater pow­ers and respon­si­bil­i­ties, in par­tic­u­lar to set ener­gy tar­iff rates.¹

Although the new laws gov­ern­ing elec­tric­i­ty and gas mar­kets now pro­vide for a sim­pli­fied licens­ing pro­ce­dure for elec­tric­i­ty and gas traders or sup­pli­ers based in EU mem­ber states inter­est­ed in enter­ing the Croa­t­ian ener­gy mar­ket, HERA is still apply­ing the old licens­ing rules in the licens­ing pro­ce­dure. This is due to a lack of new imple­ment­ing bylaws, which should stip­u­late the exact licens­ing require­ments.

Electricity

Despite the fact that the Croa­t­ian elec­tric­i­ty mar­ket has been ful­ly opened as of 1 July 2008, elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and sup­ply is still rather monop­o­lis­tic. The key mar­ket play­er in the elec­tric­i­ty sec­tor is the ver­ti­cal­ly-inte­grat­ed HEP Group, which is ful­ly owned by the Croa­t­ian state. There­fore, one of the major amend­ments intro­duced by the new Elec­tric­i­ty Mar­ket Act is the require­ment that the HEP Group unbun­dle its trans­mis­sion sys­tem busi­ness from its gen­er­a­tion busi­ness. Croa­t­ia has opt­ed for the inde­pen­dent trans­mis­sion oper­a­tor (ITO) mod­el pur­suant to which the trans­mis­sion sys­tem oper­a­tor (TSO) HEP-OPS will belong to the HEP Group, but it will have to com­ply with strict reg­u­la­to­ry con­di­tions to ensure ful­ly effec­tive inde­pen­dence. Cur­rent­ly, the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process of HEP-OPS is pend­ing before HERA. The unbundling process should be finalised by March 2014.

In the mean­time, two new com­peti­tors – the Ger­man ener­gy com­pa­ny RWE and the Sloven­ian com­pa­ny GEN‑I – have entered the Croa­t­ian elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply mar­ket. It is expect­ed that the unbundling process will pro­vide new oppor­tu­ni­ties and facil­i­tate for­eign sup­pli­ers’ enter­ing the elec­tric­i­ty mar­ket.

Oil and gas

In the Croa­t­ian oil and gas indus­try the key mar­ket play­er is INA-INDUSTRIJA NAFTE d.d., a ver­ti­cal­ly inte­grat­ed com­pa­ny with MOL Hun­gar­i­an Oil and Gas Plc. and with the Croa­t­ian Gov­ern­ment as its biggest share­hold­ers. Oil and gas explo­ration and pro­duc­tion, oil pro­cess­ing, and most trade in oil derivates and LPG, as well as sup­ply, is car­ried out by INA Group com­pa­nies.

Although the Croa­t­ian gas mar­ket has legal­ly been ful­ly opened since 1 August 2008, INA (through its affil­i­at­ed com­pa­ny PRIRODNI PLIN) as the major whole­sale nat­ur­al gas sup­pli­er, and at the same time, the importer of nat­ur­al gas, con­tin­ues to dom­i­nate the gas sup­ply mar­ket.²

Pur­suant to the new Gas Mar­ket Act, the unbundling of trans­mis­sion from gen­er­a­tion and sup­ply activ­i­ties is required. The cit­ed law pro­vides for three unbundling mod­els: (i) full own­er­ship unbundling; (ii) the inde­pen­dent sys­tem oper­a­tor (ISO) mod­el; or (iii) the ITO mod­el. But the unbundling of activ­i­ties relat­ed to gas trans­mis­sion and stor­age has already hap­pened. The state-owned PLINACRO, which was sep­a­rat­ed from INA in 2002, is the TSO. The gas stor­age oper­a­tor is PODZEMNO SKLADIŠTE PLINA. This com­pa­ny was legal­ly unbun­dled from INA and bought by state-owned PLINACRO. Cur­rent­ly, the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process of PLINACRO as own­er­ship unbun­dled TSO before HERA is pend­ing.

Explo­ration and pro­duc­tion of hydro­car­bons

The new Min­ing Act pro­vides a legal frame­work for the explo­ration and pro­duc­tion of min­er­al raw mate­ri­als in gen­er­al, where­as the new Hydro­car­bons Explo­ration and Pro­duc­tion Act con­tains spe­cial pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing the licens­ing and con­ces­sion regimes applic­a­ble to explo­ration and pro­duc­tion of hydro­car­bons (oil, gas, and gas con­den­sates). The respec­tive legal reform is aimed to boost invest­ments in explo­ration and pro­duc­tion of hydro­car­bons in Croa­t­ia. Report­ed­ly, the Croa­t­ian Gov­ern­ment plans to launch the ten­der process for the explo­ration and pro­duc­tion con­tract in the sec­ond half of 2014.

The comprehensive energy law reform focused on transposing the Third Energy Package into Croatian law. Unbundling and implementation of the established legal and regulatory framework is expected to create a non-discriminatory and competitive environment on the Croatian energy market. But the expected benefits of EU Accession on the energy sector will have to be seen.

1

Only feed-in tar­iff rates for elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­at­ed from RES and cogen­er­a­tion and bio fuel pro­duc­tion are to be adopt­ed by the gov­ern­ment.

2

It is reg­u­lat­ed by law that until 31 March 2014 the com­pa­ny PRIRODNI PLIN is under the pub­lic ser­vice oblig­a­tion of gas pro­cure­ment (who is oblig­ed to sup­ply gas to the house­hold cus­tomers’ sup­pli­ers under reg­u­lat­ed con­di­tions and at reg­u­lat­ed prices) in Croa­t­ia.

Dani nakon pristupanja Republike Hrvatske u EU – Osvrt na energetsko tržište

Hoće li nova pravila igre povećati konkurentnost hrvatskog energetskog tržišta?

Preuzimanje Trećeg energetskog paketa u hrvatsko zakonodavstvo

Dana 1. srp­n­ja 2013. Repub­li­ka Hrvats­ka je posta­la dijelom unutarn­jeg tržiš­ta EU te se očeku­je da će to doprini­jeti daljn­jem otvaran­ju ener­get­skog tržiš­ta poten­ci­jal­nim domaćim i stran­im investi­tori­ma u nadolazećem raz­doblju. Kao dio priprema Repub­like Hrvatske za članst­vo u EU ključno je bilo imple­men­ti­rati Treći ener­get­s­ki paket u nacional­no zakon­o­davst­vo.

Novi zakon­o­davni okvir

U tu svrhu, tijekom 2012. i 2013. stupili su na snagu ključni ener­get­s­ki zakoni:

• Zakon o energi­ji dana 11. stu­denog 2012.;
• Zakon o reg­u­laciji ener­get­skih dje­lat­nos­ti dana 11. stu­denog 2012.;
• Zakon o tržiš­tu elek­trične energi­je dana 2. ožu­j­ka 2013.;
• Zakon o tržiš­tu plina dana 8. ožu­j­ka 2013.;
• Zakon o rudarstvu dana 18. svib­n­ja 2013.;
• Zakon o istraži­van­ju i eksploat­aci­ji ugljikovodi­ka dana 30. srp­n­ja 2013.

Među­tim, još uvi­jek je potreb­no donijeti cijeli niz podza­kon­skih propisa, koji će osig­u­rati pot­punu i učinkovi­tu proved­bu gore nave­denih zakona.

U cilju jačan­ja neo­vis­nos­ti i funkci­ja Hrvatske ener­getske reg­u­la­torne agen­ci­je (HERA), nacional­nom reg­u­la­tornom tijelu su dodi­jel­jene veće ovlasti i odgov­ornos­ti, pose­bice određi­van­je cije­na (tar­i­fa) na ener­get­skom tržiš­tu.¹

Iako novi zakoni koji­ma se ure­đu­je tržište elek­trične energi­je i plina sada pred­viđa­ju pojed­nos­tavl­jeni pos­tu­pak za izda­van­je dozvola trgovci­ma ili opskr­blji­vači­ma elek­trične energi­je i plina iz drža­va član­i­ca EU koji žele ući na hrvatsko ener­get­sko tržište, HERA i dal­je prim­jen­ju­je stare propise u pos­tup­ku izda­van­ja dozvola. Razlog tome je što još uvi­jek nije done­sen novi podza­kon­s­ki propis, kojim se tre­ba reg­uli­rati točni uvjeti pod koji­ma se izda­ju dozv­ole.

Tržište električne energije

Una­toč čin­jeni­ci što je hrvatsko tržište elek­trične energi­je pot­puno otvoreno od 1. srp­n­ja 2008., proizvod­n­ja, dis­tribu­ci­ja i opskr­ba elek­trične energi­je je još uvi­jek pril­ično monop­o­lis­tič­ka. Ključni tržišni igrač u sek­toru elek­trične energi­je je ver­tikalno inte­gri­rana HEP gru­pa, koja je u pot­punos­ti u državnom vlas­ništvu. Sto­ga, jed­na od ključnih prom­je­na uve­denih novim Zakonom o tržiš­tu elek­trične energi­je je uvjet razd­va­jan­ja dje­lat­nos­ti pri­jenosa od proizvod­nje elek­trične energi­je unutar HEP grupe. Hrvats­ka je izabrala mod­el neo­visnog oper­a­to­ra pri­jenosa (ITO mod­el) suk­lad­no kojem će oper­a­tor pri­jenosnog sus­ta­va HEP-OPS osta­ti u vlas­ništvu HEP grupe, ali će se morati uskla­di­ti sa strogim reg­u­la­torn­im uvje­ti­ma kako bi se osig­u­rala pot­puna učinkovi­ta neo­vis­nost. Trenut­no je u tijeku pos­tu­pak cer­ti­fikaci­je pred HERA-om. Pos­tu­pak razd­va­jan­ja bi tre­bao biti dovršen do kra­ja ožu­j­ka 2014.

U među­vre­menu su dva nova konkurenta – nje­mačko društ­vo RWE i sloven­sko društ­vo GEN‑I – ušla na hrvatsko tržište opskrbe elek­tričnom energi­je. Očeku­je se da će pos­tu­pak razd­va­jan­ja stvoriti nove pri­like i omogući­ti stran­im opskr­blji­vači­ma da uđu na tržište elek­trične energi­je.

Tržište plina i nafte

Na hrvatskom tržiš­tu nafte i plina ključni tržišni igrač je INA-INDUSTRIJA NAFTE d.d., ver­tikalno inte­gri­ra­no društ­vo s mađarskim društvom MOL i Vladom Repub­like Hrvatske kao nje­gov­im najvećim dion­ičari­ma. Istraži­van­je i eksploat­aci­ja nafte i plina, pre­ra­da nafte i veći­na trgovine naft­nim deriva­ti­ma i UNP-om, kao i opskr­ba se vrši od strane druš­ta­va INA grupe.

Iako je hrvatsko plin­sko tržište u pravnom smis­lu u pot­punos­ti otvoreno od 1. kolovoza 2008., INA (putem svo­jeg povezanog društ­va PRIRODNI PLIN), kao glavni dobavl­jač prirodnog plina i istovre­meno uvoznik prirodnog plina, nas­tavl­ja domini­rati tržištem opskrbe plinom.

Suk­lad­no novom Zakonu o tržiš­tu plina, potreb­no je provesti razd­va­jan­je dje­lat­nos­ti pri­jenosa od proizvod­nje i opskrbe plinom.² Citi­rani zakon pred­viđa tri mod­ela razd­va­jan­ja: (i) pot­puno vlas­ničko razd­va­jan­je, (ii) mod­el neo­visnog oper­a­to­ra sus­ta­va (ISO mod­el) ili (iii) mod­el neo­visnog oper­a­to­ra trans­porta (ITO mod­el). Među­tim, razd­va­jan­je dje­lat­nos­ti koje se odnose na trans­port i skladišten­je plina je već prove­de­no. PLINACRO, društ­vo u državnom vlas­ništvu, koje je odvo­jeno od društ­va INA u 2002., je oper­a­tor trans­portnog sus­ta­va plina. Oper­a­tor sus­ta­va skladiš­ta plina je PODZEMNO SKLADIŠTE PLINA. To društ­vo je pravno razd­vo­jeno od društ­va INA i kupljeno od strane društ­va PLINACRO. Trenut­no je u tijeku pos­tu­pak cer­ti­fikaci­je društ­va PLINACRO kao vlas­nič­ki razd­vo­jenog oper­a­to­ra trans­portnog sus­ta­va plina pred HERA-om.

Istraži­van­je i eksploat­aci­ja ugljikovodi­ka 

Novi Zakon o rudarstvu pred­viđa pravni okvir za istraži­van­je i eksploat­aci­ju min­er­al­nih sirov­ina općen­i­to, dok novi Zakon o istraži­van­ju i eksploat­aci­ji ugljikovodi­ka sadrži poseb­ne odredbe vezano za režim izda­van­ja dozvola i kon­ce­si­je koji se prim­jen­ju­je na istraži­van­je i eksploat­aci­ju ugljikovodi­ka (naf­ta, plin i plin­s­ki kon­den­zat). Nave­de­na zakon­o­davna refor­ma ima za cilj pot­i­can­je ula­gan­ja u istraži­van­je i eksploat­aci­ju ugljikovodi­ka u Hrvatskoj. Navod­no Vla­da Repub­like Hrvatske plani­ra objav­i­ti nat­ječaj za dod­jelu ugov­o­ra o istraži­van­ju i eksploat­aci­ji u dru­goj polovi­ci 2014.

Sveobuhvatna reforma energetskog zakonodavstva imala je za cilj preuzimanje Trećeg energetskog paketa u hrvatsko zakonodavstvo. Razdvajanjem i provedbom uspostavljenog pravnog i regulatornog okvira očekuje se stvaranje nediskriminirajućeg i konkurentskog okruženja na hrvatskom energetskom tržištu. Međutim, očekivane koristi od pridruživanja EU tek se trebaju vidjeti u energetskom sektoru.

1

Osim visine naknade (tar­ife) za proizvod­nju elek­trične energi­je iz OIE i proizvod­nju bio­gori­va koju određu­je Vla­da Repub­like Hrvatske.

1

Zakonom je propisano da je do 31. ožu­j­ka 2014. društ­vo PRIRODNI PLIN pod javnom obve­zom dobave plina u Repub­li­ci Hrvatskoj (ima obvezu opskr­blji­vati plinom opskr­blji­vače kupaca iz kat­e­gori­je kućanst­vo pod reg­uli­ran­im uvje­ti­ma i po reg­uli­ra­noj cijeni).