Note french Decree No. 2024-613 of June 27, 2024 relating to the authorization of the supply of electricity and the reduction of the tariff for the use of public electricity networks
On June 27, a decree was published relating to the authorization of the supply of electricity and the reduction of the tariff for the use of public electricity networks.
We note two major contributions from this text:
1_Definition of the direct electricity sales contract (PPA):
Article 3 of the decree amended article R333-1 paragraph 1 of the energy code and thus defined the direct sale of electricity contract as “any contract having as its object the direct sale of electricity, a producer connected to the continental metropolitan network to a final consumer for final consumption purposes or to a network manager for its losses, without subsequent transfer.”
This notion of direct sale was introduced by the APER law (law no. 2023-175 of March 10, 2023 relating to the acceleration of the production of renewable energies) without being defined; the Ministry of Ecology simply specifies its mechanism in a network notice for their losses).
2_The request for supply authorization by the electricity producer:
This same article 3 of the decree, modifying article R333-1 of the energy code, adds in point 7 that the electricity producer who wishes to obtain a supply authorization must provide a note describing “the commercial characteristics of its project and justifying the coherence of its technical and financial capacities [and, in certain cases] the technical characteristics of the production installation(s) to which the direct electricity sales contract relates”.
- The decree provides for an exception to this compulsory supply authorization in point 12; “the producer is exempt from applying for authorization if he has delegated to a third party already holding the authorization the responsibility of assuming, with regard to final consumers, the obligations incumbent on electricity suppliers”. The producer using this delegation mechanism must then inform the Minister of Energy “at least one month before the delegation takes effect”.
According to article R333-2 of the energy code, the supply authorization is then granted for a given customer and a given volume. The supplier wishing to “address other categories of customers or provide volumes greater than those covered by its previous authorization” must request a new authorization.
The particular case of collective self-consumption is not addressed in this decree but it seems to be included in the definition mentioned in the first point of this article; this, despite the position of the CRE (Deliberation No. 2024-03 of the Energy Regulatory Commission of January 18, 2024 providing an opinion on a draft decree setting out the terms of the authorization for which electricity producers concluding a contract for the direct sale of electricity to end consumers or to network managers for their losses must be holders) pushing for a distinction between “classic” direct sale and collective self-consumption.
However, the question remains of the supply authorization which would result from a collective self-consumption mechanism: global authorization or several individual authorizations? The text tends towards individual authorizations.
