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The Swiss Federal Council has unveiled plans to entirely liberalise the domestic power market and develop renewable electricity production. It has launched the consultation procedure to amend the electricity supply law (LApEl, Loi sur l’approvisionnement en électricité) and the procedure is expected to last until the end of January 2019. This reform is meant to provide a new framework for the Swiss electricity market.

So far, 5/6 of electricity purchases take place on open markets but 99% of retail and business consumers remain bound to regulated suppliers. The full opening of the power market would enable consumers to switch to the liberalised market and to return to the regulated market. They will be able to choose the most attractive means of supply for them (choice of power supplier or electric product, clean production or use of their flexibility during consumption). Electricity consumers could then influence the future evolution of the electricity supply, allowing innovative products and services as well as digitization to develop more quickly. End consumers remaining in the regulated market will receive only Swiss electricity, which will include a minimum share of renewable power.

Switzerland will continue to trade electricity but will not provide additional state incentives for investments in capacities. The country has no plans for a capacity market, as its installed capacity will remain much higher than its power needs, even after the planned decommissioning of its nuclear power plants. However, power transmission network operator Swissgrid will issue yearly tenders for storage reserves (pumped-storage plants, waste-to-energy power plants, batteries, etc.) that will be financed by network use fees.

Network use fees will be adapted to make power supply more regional and avoid expensive expansions. Power used by the end consumer (kW) will now have more weight than the energy withdrawn (kWh). End consumers will be free to decide on the use of their flexibility: if distribution network operators decide to use flexibility, they will have to compensate end consumers. The «Sunshine» regulation will be legally guaranteed to improve transparency over power distributors.

Polish state-held gas company PGNiG has taken legal action against a deal reached in May 2018 by the European Commission (EC) and Gazprom to settle an anti-trust case and save Gazprom a fine.

Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company Shell has agreed to sell its upstream oil and gas assets in Denmark to Noreco (Norwegian Energy Company) for a total consideration of US$1.9bn (€1.65bn).

French oil and gas company Total has signed an agreement with India’s infrastructure group Adani Group to jointly develop energy business projects in the Indian market, including fuel retail and liquefied natural gas (LNG) activities. The two companies will work together on various LNG regasification terminals, including Dhamra LNG on the East coast of India.

The European Commission (EC) has agreed to invest over €51m from the European Regional Development Fund in the planned Tworóg–Tworzeń gas pipeline project in Silesia (Poland), which will be built by the Polish gas transmission system operator Gaz-System. The project is part of the European North-South Gas Corridor,…

Russian oil and gas company Lukoil has started to build the infrastructure facilities associated with the Rakushechnoye offshore field development project in the Caspian Sea.. The final investment decision (FID) for Rakushechnoye was taken in July 2018.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo DR) has signed a joint agreement regarding the development of the US$14bn Inga-3 giant hydropower project, with a consortium led by Chinese state-run power company China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) and a consortium led by Spanish company ACS (Actividades de Construcción y Servicios). After initially competing for the deal,…