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Access to electricity networks

Historically, successive packages of UK and, prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, European legislation have driven the separation of electricity retailing from the Ownership and operation of Monopoly networks.

Customers connected to networks that were exempt from these Requirements did not benefit from the resulting increase in retail competition. So-called ‘private wires’ are a part of property estates of all kinds—from industrial parks to hospitals; University campuses to airports—and also feature in some new-build energy or multi-utility services company arrangements.

In Citiworks AG v Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit als Landesregulierungsbehörde, the European Court of Justice (now the Court of Justice of the European Union) expressed concerns about the effect these exemptions would have on integration of European energy markets and ruled that customers must be given access to alternative energy supplies.

The position was clarified and reinforced in the EU's Third Package of internal EU electricity market measures in Directive 2009/72/EC (Electricity Directive).

The changes in UK law required by the Electricity Directive, including the consequences