Challenges and Tasks of the Legal Regulation of Electric Power and Capacity Trading in the Wholesale Market

Abstract

The legal regulation of trading in the wholesale electric power and capacity market is based on the Law on the Electric Power Industry and the Wholesale Electric Power and Capacity Market Regulations. The peculiarities of legal regulation established by the Federal Law “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)” should also be considered. As of March 17, 2020, the List of Wholesale Market Actors Undergoing Bankruptcy Proceedings included 40 companies. Poor payment behavior in the wholesale electric power and capacity market is one of the main issues. Failure to pay does not only affect the settlement status in the market, but also leads directly to an unscrupulous market player being declared insolvent. In this case, the existing legal regulation does not guarantee protection against wholesale electric power and capacity market transactions being disputed unreasonably. It seems that the best way to prevent transactions from being disputed in bad faith is to amend the current revision of Article 61.4 of the Bankruptcy Law by adding provisions stating in which cases transactions required by the wholesale electric power and capacity market rules cannot be disputed.