The Internal EU Electricity Market: Implications for Ireland

Abstract

The European Union is creating a single electricity market. Like the single European market for goods and other services, if the price of electricity is lower in France than Ireland, traders will export electricity from France to Ireland,thuslowering the price in Ireland. The legal architecture has been enacted. Important implementation decisions still need to be completed. An EU?wide deadline of 2014 has been set. However, Ireland has been granted transitional arrangements until 2016. On completion the scope of the single EU electricity market is likely to include wind power from the North Seas and solar power from North Africa. What are the implications for Ireland?