Judicial and public control over the discretionary powers of the national regulatory commission in the fields of energy and public utilities

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The article analyzes the judicial and public control over the discretionary powers of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities. The Authority of the Regulator in the field of setting tariffs in the energy sector is a broad discretion, therefore, an important legal issue is the regulation and implementation of control activities for their implementation.
 It has been established that the legislation does not provide for the responsibility of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities before consumers - natural persons for making illegal decisions, which can significantly complicate the process of receiving compensation by the consumer for losses incurred as a result of making such decisions by the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities in court. This indicates a very high degree of risk and opportunities for abuse in decision-making by the regulator in the field of setting prices (tariffs), including for housing and communal services, which are related to his discretionary powers.
 The article analyzes court cases over the past 3 years by courts of administrative jurisdiction in courts of first instance, in which of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities was a participant (in 2019 – 117 decisions were made, in 2020 – 167 decisions, in 2021 – 179 decisions). However, the results of the analysis led to the conclusion of a very low level of legal activity of consumers - natural persons. Such a low activity of appeals by natural persons against the decisions of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities in the field of setting tariffs may indicate either a low level of knowledge in the field of current mechanisms for setting tariffs in the field of energy and possible public control over their adoption, the need to incur significant costs of time and money to appeal the decisions of the regulator, and mistrust in court in terms of making fair decisions in a dispute with a subject of authority.
 It was concluded that today the household consumer of services in the field of energy is practically not protected from the arbitrariness of the Regulator in the context of the presence of an effective mechanism for checking the use of discretionary powers by the regulator in the field of tariff insertion. In general, only a combination of judicial and public control can give a positive result in the direction of implementing the principle of good governance in the activities of all administrative bodies, including the National Commission, which carries out state regulation in the fields of energy and communal services.