The electricity market opens up slowly
The National Electricity Regulatory Authority (ANRE) will present its annual report to Parliament in December 2024. Its chairman, Abdellatif Bardach, will take charge of this task, explaining to elected representatives the challenges of market liberalization.
One of these is “ non-discriminatory access ” to the grid of the National Office for Water and Electricity (ONEE), hence the regulator’s decision, on September 13, 2024, to approve the Code of Conduct for the national electricity transmission network.
ONEE is the “provisional manager” of this network. As such, it submitted its code to the regulator for validation. The regulator made a number of recommendations: “Facilitate the integration of renewable energies, reduce the carbon footprint, external compliance audits of the code of conduct for the national transmission system operator…”.
Comprising just a little more than thirty articles, a version of this code is currently available at www.one.org.ma. This version mentions rather “ the designation of a compliance controller within ONEE’s internal organization” ! This August 2024 version is therefore not up to date, as it does not incorporate the regulator’s recommendations issued one month later.
Furthermore, in September 2024, ANRE enjoined the public operator to publish on its website its decision No. 04/24 approving the code, as well as the code itself “as approved…”, i.e. up to date. However, neither document is available on ONEE’s outdated website.
And yet, their publication is decisive, particularly from a regulatory point of view. If only to demonstrate the effectiveness of the electricity market regulation directives. “ This decision (…) will be transmitted to ONEE for application and publication on its website”, writes ANRE.
According to the same decision, ONEE, which was established in 1963, is required to “ refer the matter” to its regulator “within six months”, in order to submit “ an action plan for the implementation of the code of conduct of the national electricity transmission system operator”. The six-month period runs from the date of publication of ANRE’s decision. In other words, September 13, 2024. The institution headed by Tarik Hammane must submit its copy for approval in March 2025.
One of its components will certainly concern equal treatment of users and non-discriminatory access to the national electricity transmission network… The same applies to “competitive neutrality and market access”, which ANRE addressed on November 13, 2024 in Marrakech (see our edition of the same day and L’Economiste n°6891 of November 21, 2024).
Faiçal FAQUIHI
