20/11/2023

ERSE – Energy Services Regulatory Entity is putting out for public consultation today a proposal of five directives that aim to approve new methodologies for estimating load and injection profiles for the electricity and gas sectors, as well as the methodology for construction of loss profiles for the electricity transmission and distribution networks. Finally, new rules for calculating the adequacy factor for the electricity sector are proposed.

The production of this regulation was foreseen in the recent regulatory review of the electricity sector concluded by ERSE in July this year (Public Consultation no. 113), specifically in the Commercial Relations Code for the electricity and gas sectors (RRC) and in the Access to Networks and Interconnections Code (RARI).

In the case of load profiles and loss profiles, the main motivation for this regulatory review is the simplification of the respective annual approval processes, along with the reinforcement of transparency and the participation of the various interested parties in the development of the methodologies that support this approval.

Load profiles are estimated for each period (quarter-hourly, in the case of the electricity sector, and daily, in the case of the gas sector) of each day of the year and correspond to the proportion of annual consumption attributed to each of these periods. The development of smart grids in the electrical sector substantially reduces the need to use profiles, increasingly adopting real information obtained from each electrical installation.

Loss profiles serve as the basis for the loss adjustment process, which relates the electrical energy measured at one point in the network to the losses caused by its transit from another point.

In the case of the rules applicable to the adequacy factor, the regulatory review results from the evolution of the electricity sector itself, in particular the installation of smart meters with daily collection of load diagrams. The adequacy factor divides the differences between the electrical energy delivered to the grid (measured at entry points) and the electrical energy determined for the various suppliers (measured at consumption points).

The public consultation runs until December 5, 2023.

Access the Public Consultation.