OWNERSHIP UNBUNDLING: THE PORTUGUESE EXPERIENCE

The third energy package, adopted in 2009, put forward the possibility to unbundle the ownership of vertically integrated companies, namely by separating the ownership of the transmission network from generation and/or supply - Ownership Unbundling. This topic raises a number of interesting legal and political questions and consequently has been highly debated at EU level. While some Member States struggle against the implementation of such an intrusive measure - tending to adopt one of the other two models put forward by the new legislative package - others have already had ownership unbundling in force for several years. This is for example the case of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Portugal which have implemented ownership unbundling in the beginning of this century.

This paper will focus on the Portuguese experience regarding ownership unbundling and the challenges of the third energy package. The analysis of the implementation of ownership unbundling in Portugal is interesting also on a more general EU and international level as Portugal was one of the first European Member States adopting this regime, shortly after the implementation of the first liberalisation directives of 1996 (electricity) and 1998 (gas). Ownership unbundling was unquestionably one of the drivers of liberalisation in the Portuguese and Iberian energy markets.

This paper will also examine the liberalisation procedure more generally, namely the implementation of the first two energy packages (the 1996-1998 and the 2003), the process of privatisation and unbundling of the current transmission system operator Rede Eléctrica Nacional (hereinafter REN) from the previously vertically integrated undertaking Energias de Portugal (hereinafter EDP). Finally, the paper will also discuss some challenges regarding the implementation of the third energy package into Portuguese law.