EU super-regulator ACER has outlined the possibility of a database of standardised contracts similar to financial legislation in its latest data collection and reporting recommendations for stakeholder consultation.
The Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) presented a public consultation document in Ljubljana on 19 July, outlining the agency`s latest recommendations in relation to its Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) (see EDEM 4 May 2012).
The public consultation will last until 31 July, ahead of ACER submitting its recommendations to the Commission in September 2012.
REMIT`s aim is to prevent market manipulation and insider trading, as well as establishing greater transparency in energy markets via increased data and trade reporting.
Volker Zuleger, ACER`s seconded national expert, presented ACER`s main recommendations. The presentation included a proposal of definitions in REMIT for the understanding of data collection and reporting obligations, as well as a proposal for records of transactions and a proposal for lists of contracts.

Financial legislation model
The proposal includes the possibility of ACER establishing a database for a list of standardised contracts on its website, using the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) model.
Also contained within the document are proposals for de minimis rules to regulate contracts made by small producers, for uniform rules on trade reporting systems, for timing and form of reporting, for avoidance of double reporting, and for trade reporting channels.
The proposal for records of transactions will take into account experiences and developments in the EU financial market legislation.
Records of transactions will include orders to trade for standardised and non-standardised contracts.
The first consultation on what type and format of data wholesale market participants should submit in compliance with REMIT took place in April 2012.
Electricity industry group Eurelectric, the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) and other organisations preferred not to comment on the consultation, as they are preparing their official responses, to be published after the consultation closes.
ACER is expected to begin data collection and monitoring 18 months after the regulation`s entry into force.
Energy trading firms are expected to be registered under the REMIT legislation during the second quarter of 2013, while ACER and national regulators are due to start data collection and monitoring from July next year.
National regulators` competencies under REMIT should begin to be implemented into member states` law from summer next year.