Funding entity Associação Portuguesa dos Industriais Grandes Consumidores de Energia Eléctrica
Participated by INESCTEC
A cost allocation and settlement scheme for system services in the Portuguese electricity system should, on the one hand, allocate each cost element efficiently, attempting to reflect, as far as possible, the causality of costs and, on the other hand, respond to concerns regarding the volatility of these costs and the impossibility of managing the risk involved. Applying the principle of causality allows the cost of a service to be passed on proportionally to the agents that have created the need for that service. In the case of balancing services, each service must be analysed separately to define causality.
On the other hand, it is necessary to analyse whether the costs should continue to be passed on to consumers through components added to the daily and intraday market prices or whether they should be charged through network tariffs or other charges that also allow for the stabilisation of end-user prices.
In order to identify alternative cost allocation methodologies, the project analyse the experience of other European countries that share the same high level of regulation as Portugal, selecting those systems that have also experienced increases in the costs of system services.
The analysis and recommendations for improving the mechanism for allocating and settling the costs of system services in Portugal is of a general nature, but a qualitative study is carried out on how they would affect energy-intensive companies associated in APIGCEE.
Layman's summary: This project reviews how system service costs should be allocated and settled in Portugal, balancing cost causality with price stability. It compares European approaches and proposes improvements, including a qualitative assessment of impacts on APIGCEE energy-intensive companies.
2026_APIGCEE_System_services
