Markets supervision is an important aspect in the development of the energy markets. In a context of deepening the internal market for energy at European level, the affirmation of a context of liberalisation of the production and trading activities requires closer attention to the practices in the market regime.

In highly concentrated markets, such as the energy market, the affirmation of a culture of competition and of performance conditions that allow the replication of the competition benefits, there is a need for a closer and more effective monitoring that is adapted to the current and future context of the energy markets.

ERSE accommodates markets supervision into its strategic performance options, namely pertaining to the promotion of competition in the sector and the defence of consumer interests.

While regulation corresponds to ex ante action, through the establishment of performance standards for the agents and market operators, supervision corresponds to ex post action, allied with the verification of agent’s practices and behaviours and their compliance with legal principles and regulation.

Supervision covers several intervention dimensions focused on the functioning of energy markets - such as the supervision of operators and market platforms, the behaviour of agents and the monitoring of relevant market variables (namely pricing) - with the objective of ensuring its proper functioning and contributing to building agents’ confidence, in particular consumers, who are the main beneficiaries of an effective and efficient supervision.

ERSE's participation in the Iberian Electricity Market Regulators Board (MIBEL) implies the accomplishment of a set of activities that allow for a closer monitoring of the Iberian Electricity market developments.

With the start of MIBEL’s operation, ERSE has strengthened its role in markets supervision, adopting information systems to support the activity of markets monitoring, including SIMER (Market Information System), a technology platform that supports the supervision of the Iberian electricity market (MIBEL), namely in spot and forward contracts in the wholesale electricity market.

The ERSE Portal is also a support component to the markets supervision activity, namely through the non-discriminatory disclosure of information, thus contributing to a greater market transparency and for the affirmation of efficient and competitive markets.

The reinforcement of supervision activities is followed by the improvement of the mechanisms to articulate and to share information among the regulators that constitute the MIBEL Board of Regulators and the periodic disclosure of information on the function of the different markets.

The functioning of the electricity and natural gas markets depends on the legal and regulatory framework. The supervision of energy markets requires the verification of compliance with that framework, in particular with regard to compliance with transparency and information obligations.

The Commercial Relations Code (RRC), common to the electricity sector and the natural gas sector, contains the general legal framework regarding contracting arrangements and the functioning of organized markets.

Regarding the retail market supervision, the RRC lays down specific obligations applicable to electricity and natural gas traders regarding the communication of price information and the content of commercial offers.

The RRC identifies the procedures, deadlines and obligation to disclose information regarding the change of supplier procedure, which guarantees all customers the right to change suppliers in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

Through the Procedures Manual for Global System Management of the Electric System and the Procedures Manual for the Global Technical Management of the SNGN, the RRC stablished the information that the market players are required to disclose in order to ensure transparency in the market functioning.

The assignment of a CRIA (Individual Agent Record Code) to agents who are either starting their activity or who have already been registered, but started operating in another sector or in a different activity, requires agents to fill and submit a form to ERSE, along with the documentation evidencing the respective registration, in accordance with Directive No 16/2019, of 6 December. CRIA applies to all agents operating in Mainland Portugal, both in regulated and free markets, in the electricity and natural gas sectors.

You may find here an updated list of CRIA: excel format / pdf format.