A study on energy costs and subsidies in the European Union

Overall objectives of the EU energy policies include a secure and competitively price energy supply, and the 2020 targets for greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy and energy savings. Long term objectives are laid down in the 2050 Roadmaps, and the Green Paper on a 2030 framework for energy and climate policies  shows that public interventions are needed to move to a more sustainable, secure and competitive energy system. Such interventions may help to secure a level playing field, correct market failures, promote innovative technologies and innovation, and to create a market delivering the right incentives for investments.

The purpose of the project is to provide  the  European  Commission  with  a  complete  and consistent set of data on energy, generation and system costs and the historical and current state of externalities and subsidies in 28 EU Member States and for the EU overall.  The project will specifically aim at  the assessment of methodologies and definitions of costs and subsidies to determine an objective framework for deriving production, system, consumption, direct, indirect, financial, regulatory and external costs and subsidies, concluding on a workable methodological framework. What is more, it will provide energy cost data covering capital and operating costs of different generation technologies, all external costs, and energy transmission and distribution networks cost, as well as system. The study will also provide historical and current data on all existing forms of subsidies and other regulatory measures in all EU Member States on both the production, system and consumption side of energy products and carriers, focussing on those measures that directly impact energy costs and wholesale energy market prices. Additionally the project will provide indications on where distortions resulting from excessive or incoherent regulation/subsidies are most likely or pronounced.
 

The project will go through the five tasks: Inception; Design of a methodology and framework; Data collection and inventory; Analysis and quantification of energy costs, subsidies and external costs; Reporting.

The CASE role in the project is referred mainly to the data collection by the CASE experts covering the following EU Member States: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia and Hungary.

Partners: Ecofys Netherlands, KPMG, Research, CE Delft

Donor: DG Energy