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In order to liberalise the EU's internal energy market, three consecutive legislative packages of measures were adopted since late 1990s to 2009.
Lastly, the third “Energy Package” adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in July 2009 includes - inter alia - two directives seeking, among others:
to ensure the ownership unbundling, namely that the same person is not entitled to exercise control over a production or supply undertaking and, at the same time, exercise control or any right over a transmission system operator or transmission system;
to ensure the full effectiveness of the independent system operator or independent transmission operator solution by providing an appropriate regulatory framework to guarantee fair competition, sufficient investment, access for new market entrants; and
to grant non-discriminatory access to the electricity grid or to the gas system, provided such access is permanently compatible with the relevant technical rules and safety standards.
These two directives have been recently transposed in Luxembourg through the two following laws published in Official Journal:
Law of 7 August 2012 amending the Law of 1 August 2007 on the organization of the electricity market transposing Directive 2009/72/EC of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 2003/54/EC (Mémorial A - N° 178 of August 22, 2012)
Law of 7 August 2012 amending the Law of 1 August 2007 on the organization of the natural gas market transposing Directive 2009/73/EC of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 2003/55/EC (Mémorial A - N° 179 of August 22, 2012)
These two laws are in force since August 27, 2012.
It is worth mentioning that Luxembourg, being qualified as emergent and isolated market, benefits of an exemption of the unbundling regime, namely to item 1. above.
Key features brought by the aforementioned laws may be summarized, as follows:
strengthening of the rights granted to the electricity consumers respectively to the gas consumers, by implementing particular provisions relating to their rights of accessing the relevant data consumer; the setting-up of the one-stop shop providing consumers with the necessary information concerning their rights and the ways of settlement in the event of a dispute;
the setting-up of the framework and the timetable for the deployment of a common national infrastructure and an interoperable smart metering that promote the participation, in an active manner, of the consumers to the electricity market, respectively to the gas market;
granting of the guaranteed access to the networks for energy produces from renewable energy sources, subject to meeting the requirements of reliability and safety;
ensuring the independence of the regulator enabling it to take independent decisions; granting incentives for using the network and other ancillary services falls under the duties of the regulator;
the setting-up of the legal framework enabling the control of a transmission system operator by a non-member country of the European Union.
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