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Art. 5 of Legislative Decree 79/99 vested GME with the responsibility of organising and managing
transactions in the Electricity Market under criteria of neutrality, transparency, objectivity and
competition between producers.
As part of the management of transactions in the Electricity Market, GME was also assigned with the
task of organising venues for the trading of Green Certificates (art. 6, Ministerial Decree of 24 Oct.
2005) and of Energy Efficiency Certificates (articles 10, Ministerial Decrees of 20 Jul. 2004, as
subsequently amended and supplemented by the Ministerial Decree of 21 Dec. 2007). Legislative Decree
387/03 (as subsequently amended and supplemented), implementing Directive 2001/77/EC on promotion of
electricity generation from renewables in the internal electricity market, contains additional provisions
on Green Certificates.
Directive 2003/54/EC (repealing the previous
Directive 96/92/EC) establishes common rules for generation, transmission,
distribution and supply of electricity and defines, among others, organisational and operational rules for
the electricity sector and for access to the market.
Directive 2003/55/EC of 26 Jun. 2003 concerns common rules for the internal market in natural gas and
repeals Directive 98/30/EC.
Directive 2009/28/EC of 23 Apr. 2009 (amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and
2003/30/EC) lays down rules on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources.
Law no. 239 of 23 Aug. 2004 (as subsequently amended and supplemented) provides for reorganisation
of the energy sector as a whole and establishes, among others, general objectives of energy policy,
such as providing security, flexibility and continuity of energy supplies and promoting the unified
operation of energy markets.
On 28 Jan. 2009, Law-Decree no. 185 of 29 Nov. 2008, concerning urgent measures to
support households, labour, employment and businesses and to redesign national strategies in view of
combating the crisis, was amended and converted into Law no. 2.
On 29 Apr. 2009, the Minister of Economic Development issued the Ministerial Decree of 29 Apr. 2009
concerning: guidelines to reform the electricity market rules under art. 3, para. 10 of Law no. 2
of 28 Jan. 2009; impetus to be given to the evolution of regulated forward markets; and strengthening
of electricity market monitoring activities.
On a yearly basis, a Decree of the Minister of Economic Development determines the procedure for the
sale of the electricity referred to in Art. 3, para. 12 of Legislative Decree no. 79 of 16 Mar. 1999
in the Electricity Market by Gestore dei Servizi Energetici-GSE SpA, as well as the procedure for
assignment of 'CIP-6' electricity.
On 15 Aug. 2009, Law no. 99 of 23 Jul. 2009, concerning provisions on development and internationalisation of
companies, as well as on energy matters, came into force. Art. 30 of the Law vests GME with exclusive
responsibility to economically manage the natural gas market under neutrality, transparency, objectivity
and competition criteria.
The Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 18 Mar. 2010 gave a first implementation of Law
99/09, vesting GME with the organisation and management of a natural gas trading platform (P-GAS),
into which bids/asks of quotas of imported gas (as per Art. 1, para. 1 of the Ministerial Decree of
19 Mar. 2008) must be submitted.
With a subsequent Decree of 23 Feb. 2012, the Ministry of Economic Development established that the
authorisations for importing natural gas produced in EU and non-EU countries (under contracts of a
duration of more than one year) granted by the same Ministry after the enactment of Legislative
Decree 93/2011 as per Art. 3 of Legislative Decree 164/2000 should be subject to the obligation of
bidding a share of natural gas on GME's trading platform referred to in the Decree of 18 Mar. 2010 (P-GAS).
Under the Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 6 Aug. 2010
(published in Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 200 of 27 Aug. 2010), GME took over the management -
on the P-GAS - of bids/asks of royalties on gas production owed to the State as per Law 40/07.
The P-GAS is open to additional bids/asks of gas volumes, including those submitted by parties
other than those subject to the obligations of Art. 11 of Law 40/2007.
The P-GAS Regulations were approved by the Minister of Economic Development on 23 Apr. 2010 and
subsequently amended and supplemented by the Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of
6 Aug. 2010, after hearing the opinion of Authority of Regolazione per Energia Rete e Ambiente
(ARERA - the Italian electricity, gas & water regulator).
In accordance with Art. 30, paras. 6 and 7 of Law no. 99 of 23 Jul. 2009, Legislative Decree no.
130 of 13 Aug. 2010 introduced measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the natural-gas market
including, among others, the implementation of new storage capacity.
Legislative Decree no. 130 of 13 Aug. 2010 - concerning measures to strengthen the competitiveness
of the natural-gas market and to transfer the consequent benefits to final customers as per Art. 30,
paras. 6 and 7 of Law no. 99 of 23 Jul. 2009, - published in Gazzetta Ufficiale, Serie Generale no.
192, Supplemento Ordinario no. 195 of 18 Aug. 2010, provides, among others, that:
- with a view to increasing the liquidity of the gas exchange to be established, investing
parties are required to offer for sale, in GME's markets, the volumes of gas made available
to them in the winter period and purchased in the summer period at summer prices;
- ARERA shall - within 28 Feb. 2011 - issue rules on merit-order balancing in the natural-gas market in accordance with the guidelines given by the Ministry, so that the same rules may enter into force on 1 Apr. 2011.
Moreover, Legislative Decree 130/10 lays down some provisions on the application of VAT in the gas
exchange to be established. These provisions make it possible to harmonise the time periods for invoicing
and the identification of the chargeable event for the application of VAT in the gas market with those
currently adopted in the electricity market.
The Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 14 December 2010, concerning the procedures, terms and conditions for electricity imports/exports for the year 2011, establishes that daily transmission capacities on the border with Slovenia shall be allocated under the Market Coupling mechanism.
The Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 31 July 2009 established
criteria and procedures for the provision of information on the fuel mix used to generate
the electricity supplied, as well as on its environmental impact.
Legislative Decree no. 28 of 3 Mar. 2011 implemented Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use
of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and
2003/30/EC. The Decree gave, among others, new indications about the management of Guarantees of Origin.
The Decree issued by the Minister of Economic Development on 6 Jul. 2012, in consultation with the
Minister of Environment, Land and Sea Protection, implemented article 24 of Legislative Decree no.
28 of 3 Mar. 2011 on support for electricity generation by renewable power plants other than photovoltaic
ones. The Decree gave, among others, indications about the management of Guarantees of Origin.
Legislative Decree no. 93 of 1 Jun. 2011 entrusted GME with the management of physical forward
natural-gas markets.
The Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 5 Sept. 2011 established criteria and procedures
for supporting high-efficiency combined heat & power (or cogeneration) plants through the issuing of
white certificates of type II (TEE II-HEC) by GSE S.p.A.
The Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 28 Dec. 2012 (identification
of national quantitative energy-saving targets to be pursued by electricity and
gas distributors in the years from 2013 to 2016 and strengthening of the white certificates
scheme) provided that the management of the system for certifying energy-saving
projects in view of gaining Energy Efficiency Certificates (TEE) should be transferred
from ARERA to GSE S.p.A.
Legislative Decree no. 249 of 31 Dec. 2012, implementing Council Directive 2009/119/EC
of 14 Sept. 2009, introduced the following main provisions:
- obligation, for parties that, in
each year, have introduced oil products into the market beyond the threshold of
50,000 tonnes, to contribute in the following year to achieving the national
target (set by the Ministry of Economic Development) of
oil stocks corresponding to 90
days of average daily net imports or 61 days of average daily inland
consumption, whichever of the two quantities is higher;
- setting-up of the Italian Central Stockholding Entity (CSE) whose tasks
(acquiring, holding, managing, transporting and selling oil stocks held in
Italy) are entrusted to the company Acquirente Unico SpA;
- vesting GME with the development of:
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the oil logistics market platform aimed at favoring the trading of short-,
medium- and long-term logistic capacities.
Pursuant to art. 21, paragraph 1 of Legislative Decree 249/2012, with
Directorial Decree no.16618 of 9 August 2013,
the establishment of the market platform for the meeting between supply and demand of
oil logistics was approved by Gestore dei Mercati Energetici S.p.A. (GME).
In order to start the logistic platform for mineral oils and in particular the establishment of the information set
needed for the aforementioned platform, Art. 21, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 249/2012 provides for the obligation
for parties of whatever legal status holding mineral-oil storage capacity in Italy, in depots with a capacity greater
than 3,000 cm, to report their capacity data to GME, by using the data reporting template approved with
Directorial
Decree no. 17371 of 30 May 2013
(for details, go to the Fuel Markets/PDC-oil section);
Moreover, art. 21, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree 249/2012, provides that the decree of the Minister of Economic Development sets the operating modalities with which the holders of the storage of mineral oils and mineral processing plants will have to communicate to GME the data on monthly capacity for storage and transit of mineral oils used for private purposes, on the available capacity for third party use and on the capacity used based on signed contracts.
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the wholesale oil products
market platform aimed at favoring the trading of liquid oil products for
the transport sector.
Pursuant to art. 22, paragraph 1 of Legislative Decree 249/2012, by
Directorial Decree no. 1617 of 9 August 2013,
the establishment of the Market Platform for the meeting between wholesale supply and demand of
liquid oil products was approved at Gestore dei Mercati Energetici S.p.A. (GME).
With its Decree of 9 August 2013, published in
Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 193 of 19 August 2013, the Ministry of Economic Development
set the date of take-off of the physical forward natural-gas market (MT-GAS), establishing
that, as of that date, the gas market (consisting of the spot market and of the
forward market) should be governed by the Natural-Gas Market Rules, approved with
the Ministerial Decree of 6 March 2013 and superseding the Gas Market Rules, approved
by the Ministry of Economic Development on 26 November 2010.
In order to monitor the wholesale energy markets attributed by REMIT to ARERA, Article 22 of Law
no. 161 dated October 30, 2014 provides that ARERA can cooperate with GME for conducting
investigations relating to cases of suspected violation of the prohibitions of insider trading
and market manipulation, as well as in case of failure to comply with the obligation to publish
confidential information. The above will be with reference to the markets managed by GME.
In addition, ARERA may coordinate its activity with that of the Competition and Market Guaranteeing
Authority as well as with that of the National Commission for companies and Stock Exchange.
GME is a contracting authority within the meaning and for the purposes of art. 3, para. 25 of
Legislative Decree no. 163 of 2006 (Code of public contracts for execution of works, provision
of services and supply of products).
By decree of 19 July 2016 the Minister of Economic Development, following the favorable opinion delivered
by the ARERA System (Opinion no. 380/2016/I/eel), approved the
amendments to the Integrated Text of the Electricity Market Rules, regarding the introduction of a
new segment for the trading of daily products (daily products market - MPEG) in the framework of
the electricity spot market managed by GME.
By Decree of 21 September
2016, the Minister of Economic Development published on the Official Gazette
no. 223 of
the Italian Republic (hereinafter referred to as the Ministerial Decree of 21/09/2016) the approval
of the changes to the Integrated
Text of the Electricity Market Rules introduced in order to regulate:
- the new rules for the management of weekly payments (W+1) on the electricity MGP and MI markets;
and
- the implementation of the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit (SDD B2B) as a settlement tool
of the electricity market (with the exception of the MSD).
By decree of November 16, 2016, published in the Official Gazette General Series n. 282 of 2
December 2016, the Minister of Economic Development, upon favorable opinion delivered by the ARERA system (Opinion no. 586/2016/I/GAS), has approved the amendments to the
Rules of the natural gas market (MGAS), functional to the startup of the gas balancing system according
to the transitional arrangement referred to in Article 2, paragraph 2.1 of Resolution ARERA
312/2016/R/GAS.
By decree 13 March 2017, published in the Official Gazette General Series n. 70 of 24 march 2017,
the Minister of Economic Development, upon favorable opinion delivered by the ARERA (Opinion of 3 March 2017 no.
98/2017/I/GAS), approved the
amendments to the natural gas market rules (MGAS), for the purpose of implementing the regime phase of
the new gas balancing system referred to in resolution ARERA 312/2016/R/GAS.
By decree MISE 5-7-2017, published in the Official Gazette General Series no. 183 del 07-08-2017, the Minister of Economic Development
approved the Rules of Operation of the Market Platform for the Meeting of Demand and Supply of Oil Logistics (P-LOGISTICS) in implementing
the provisions of Article 21, paragraph 21.3, of Legislative Decree no. 249 of December 31, 2012. The same decree also includes the provisions
essential for starting the transitional trial period of the platform as well as for communicating data on the monthly capacity for storage and
transit of mineral oils.
With Decree of January 11 2017,
published in the Official Journal, General Series no. 70 of March 24, 2017, the Ministry of Economic Development, following the favorable opinion
expressed by the ARERA (Opinion 22 December 2016 No. 784/2016/I EFR), approved the national quantitative objectives of energy saving to be pursued
by electricity and natural gas distribution companies for the years 2017 to 2020 through the White Certificate Mechanism, as well as established
the criteria, conditions and methods for implementing energy efficiency projects for the final use of access to the same mechanism.
By decree 18 December 2017,
the Ministry of Economic Development, after favorable opinion expressed by the ARERA (Opinion 30-11-2017 no
804/2017/I/GAS), has approved the amendments to the Natural Gas Market
Rules (MGAS) in order to: i) overcome the transitional management modalities of the MGS referred to in ARERA Resolution 66/2017/R/GAS; (ii) adapt
the same Rules to the subsequent ARERA Resolution 349/2017/R/GAS; iii) harmonize the "contract size" of the products currently traded on MGP-GAS,
MI-GAS, MPL and MT-GAS with the one adopted on the main European gas markets.
By decree of 2 August 2019,
the Ministry of Economic Development, after favorable opinion expressed by the ARERA (Opinion 309/2019/I/COM), has approved the amendments to the
Integrated Text of the Electricity Market Rules and to the Natural-gas Market Rules with reference to: i) new rules regarding the integrated
management of guarantees on Energy Markets, MGP and MI, and on the spot gas market; ii) simplification of operation and management processes
related to the forms of guarantees posted.
By decree 12 december 2019,
the Ministry of Economic Development, with the favorable opinion of the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (Opinion
No. 496/2019/I/COM), approved the amendments to the MGAS Rules, to the Integrated Text of the ME Rules and the P-GAS Rules. In particular,
the amendments to the aforementioned regulatory texts concerned:
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the introduction of the "weekend product" (MGAS) in the MGP-GAS;
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the implementation of the provisions pursuant to Resolution 451/2019/R/GAS (MGAS);
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the repeal of any reference to the CDE platform (ME and MGAS);
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some operational adjustments related to the adoption of the EIC code by Snam Rete Gas S.p.A. (MGAS and P-GAS).
By Decree of
02/04/2020, the Directorate General for Supply, Efficiency and Competitiveness of Energy of the Ministry of Economic Development (DGAECE) approved - pursuant to
article 6, paragraph 5 bis, of Ministerial Decree of October 2014, as subsequently amended and integrated by
Ministerial Decree of 2 March 2018 - the Rules of Operation of the market for certificates of release
to consumption of biofuels (MCIC) regulating the methods of organization and management of CIC trading sessions.
With Ministerial Decree no. 257, published in the Official Gazette General Series n. 158 of 3 July 2021, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE) - following favorable opinion delivered by ARERA with Resolution no. 218/2021/R/eel - approved the amendments to the Integrated Text of the Electricity Market Rules proposed by GME for the integration of the Italian electricity market with the Single Intra-Day Coupling (SIDC) and for the launch of the Cross Border Intraday (XBID) project on the Italian borders, in order to implement the provisions of the Regulation EU 2015/1222 (CACM).
In particular, the amendments approved by the aforementioned Decree provided that negotiation of electricity on the Italian intraday market takes place according to:
- a continuous trading basis, as part of the XBID project;
- an auction trading basis, within the context of Complementary Regional Intraday Auctions (CRIDA), pursuant to the provisions of Art. 63 of the CACM and to the Resolutions 174/2019/R/EEL and 210/2019/R/EEL.
By the Legislative Decree 8 November 2021 n.199 (Legislative Decree 8 November 2021), published in the Official Gazette General Series
n. 285 of 30 November 2021, which entered into force on 15 December 2021, the Italian government introduced certain provisions for the promotion of energy from renewable sources, providing inter alia: i.. the promotion of long-term contracts for the purchase and sale of electricity from renewable sources (hereinafter: Power Purchase Agreements or PPA); ii. the extension of the system of "guarantees of origin" (GOs) in addition to electricity to other sources of renewable energy production. In particular:
- with reference to PPAs, Art. 28 of Legislative Decree 8 November 2021 assigned to GME the task for designing and managing an IT bulletin board (PPA BULLETIN BOARD) with the aim of: i. promoting the meeting between the parties potentially interested in the stipulation of long-term contracts for electricity from renewable sources; ii. fulfilling the obligation to report data and information relating to PPA contracts stipulated outside the PPA BULLETIN BOARD.
- with reference to GOs, Art. 46 of Legislative Decree 8 November 2021 provided, among other: i) that each GO, corresponding to a standard quantity of 1 MWh produced from renewable energy sources, indicates whether it is referred to electricity, gas (including biomethane), hydrogen or products used for heating or cooling; ii) that GOs are valid for twelve months from the production of the related energy and, if not cancelled, they expire at the latest after eighteen months; iii) that GOs can be economically valued within the GO platform (P-GO) organized and managed by GME.
By Ministerial Decree of 16 September 2022 n.341, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE), pursuant to Article 16-bis of the Decree n.17/2022, established the modalities through which Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (hereinafter: GSE) transfers the electricity in its availability to "priority end-customers" as defined by Article 16-bis.3 lett. c) of the abovementioned Decree. In particular, the Ministerial Decree establishes that GSE transfers the electricity, by applying a fixed price defined in Art. 4.3 of the abovementioned Ministerial Decree, through specific assignment procedures to be held on the PPA BULLETTIN BOARD, organised and managed by GME
Such assignment procedures envisage, inter alia, the application of a pro-rata allocation criteria with respect to the purchase offers presented by "priority end-costumers". Upon the finalization of assignment procedures, GSE will stipulate with each assignee "priority end-costumers", a three years two-way contracts for difference (CfD).
With Ministerial Decree no. 107 of 16 March 2023 (Decree of 16 Mar. 2023), published in Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale no. 96 of 24 April 2023 and entered into force on 14 April 2023, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security revised its previous provisions (Ministerial Decree of 10 October 2014) concerning procedures for implementing the obligation to use renewable energy in the transport sector. In particular, while confirming the use of CICs for fulfilling the obligation, the Decree of 16 Mar. 2023 defined a new structure and classification of the obligations to release biofuels for consumption. Consequently, the Decree introduced additional types of CICs with respect to those previously indicated.
With a view to further encouraging the trading of Guarantees of Origin (GOs), the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security issued a decree (Decree no. 224 of 14 July 2023) providing that GME should introduce a digital GO Bulletin Board as part of its P-GO systems. The purpose of the GO Bulletin Board is to offer a virtual venue where parties potentially interested in concluding long-term GO contracts may enter into contact with one another, by posting their forward GO purchase and sale ads and expressing interest in the ads posted by other parties.
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