The winner of the 2010 edition of the Energy Transparency Award (ETA) has been announced, and since it will be assigned for the first time this year, the Selection Committee led by the Jorge Vasconcelos, founding chairman of the Council of European Energy Regulators, decided to give special emphasis to past achievements.
Following a call for proposals launched in June 2010, several nominations were received concerning a total of 12 entities. These nominations were evaluated according to the eight criteria laid down in the ETA Rules: effectiveness, efficiency, reproducibility, innovation, simplicity of design and implementation, responsiveness to users’ needs, leverage and contribution to market oversight improvement.
The three nominations with the highest average marks were the (in alphabetical order) National Grid; Nord Pool Spot; The Gas Regional Initiative North-West. The Committee considered that all three entities have provided outstanding contributions to the transparency of energy markets in Europe and therefore wishes to congratulate them and to encourage them to continue their work in support of more transparent and more efficient energy markets.
“National Grid, Nord Pool Spot and The Gas Regional Initiative North-West all have been and are examples of first-rate innovation and excellent cross-border cooperation. They have inspired industry, regulators and policy-makers throughout Europe and beyond EU borders, hence contributing to the better functioning of the Internal Energy Market and making the European model better known all over the world,” said the Committee in a recent press release.
From the three short-listed entities, the Committee decided one had been particularly influential since the first Internal Energy Market Directive was approved in 1996, and therefore decided to assign the 2010 European Transparency Award to Nord Pool Spot.
Nord Pool was the first cross-border electricity market operator in Europe and in the world. It has inspired the creation of cross-border energy markets all over the world and it has been a model for market operators everywhere. The simplicity, efficiency and transparency of Nord Pool has been recognized and emulated for more than 15 years now. Nord Pool Spot runs the largest electricity market in the world: in 2009 it had a turnover of 288 TWh representing a value of €10.8 billion. This success is due to a large extent to the high degree of transparency cultivated by Nord Pool management, shareholders and regulators.
The Selection Committee warmly congratulates Nord Pool Spot for its past achievements and encourages its management, shareholders and stakeholders to keep the innovation and transparency track they have so successfully pursued, for the benefit of energy consumers and energy undertakings in the Nordic countries and in Europe.
The ETA to be assigned every year, will distinguish a company or institution for their particular contribution to the transparency of energy markets in Europe. The acronym ETA is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, often used in technical and scientific formula to represent efficiency. Promoting the economic and technical efficiency of European energy markets through improved transparency is indeed the main purpose of the Energy Transparency Award.
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