Director General’s Review

The Energy Market Authority’s operations are based on proactive market regulation. In autumn 2008, the Authority launched a project entitled Road Map 2020, aimed defining the strategic intent of network services by listening to the opinions of electricity system operators, users of network services and other key stakeholders, and, as a result, formulating a development strategy for controlling the reasonableness of pricing  in electricity distribution system operation.  

The objective of the Energy Market Authority is effective regulation.  In 2008, the average electricity network service prices excluding tax fell by approx. 0.3 per cent, when proportioned to the consumer price index.  

Towards the end of 2008, the Energy Market Authority issued decisions on the reasonableness of all electricity system operators’ pricing in Finland in the years 2005 – 2007. Eleven electricity system operators had collected excess returns from network operations, totalling about EUR 11.7 million, which represents about 4 per cent of their combined turnover. The Energy Market Authority obliged the companies to return the excess returns to customers through lower distribution tariffs during the years 2008 – 2011.

Most of the electricity system operators have not, however, charged the permitted rate of return on network operations in full. If all electricity system operators charged the permitted rate of return in full, the electricity distribution tariffs would rise by about 7 per cent on the average. 

The Energy Market Authority actively promotes the functioning of the electricity market.  The online electricity price service maintained by the Authority makes it possible to obtain information about offer prices of electricity and to compare the prices quoted by different retailers.  The search numbers reached the limit of 5 million searches at the start of the current year. In 2008, electricity customers were more active than before in changing their electricity suppliers, and, as a result, 4.4 per cent of all electricity customers changed their suppliers. 

It is the remit of the Energy Market Authority, for its part, to create opportunities for Finnish actors to participate in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).  The five-year Kyoto commitment period, for which all operators within the scope of the emissions trading scheme, nearly 600 in all, applied for emission permits from the Authority, commenced at the start of 2008. During the current period, the Kyoto mechanisms, a.k.a. international emissions trading, are made use of.


Pdf: Annual report 2008