Haas, Reinhard; Auer, Hans; Orasch, Wolfgang --- "The Implementation of the EU Directive for Electricity in Austria: A New Era for the Austrian Electricity Supply Industry" [2003] ELECD 51; in Glachant, Jean-Michael; Finon, Dominique (eds), "Competition in European Electricity Markets" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: Competition in European Electricity Markets

Editor(s): Glachant, Jean-Michael; Finon, Dominique

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843761785

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Implementation of the EU Directive for Electricity in Austria: A New Era for the Austrian Electricity Supply Industry

Author(s): Haas, Reinhard; Auer, Hans; Orasch, Wolfgang

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

9. The implementation of the EU
directive for electricity in Austria:
a new era for the Austrian electricity
supply industry
Reinhard Haas, Hans Auer and
Wolfgang Orasch

INTRODUCTION

In Austria the current structure of the electricity supply industry is histor-
ically grown since the Second World War. The Second Nationalization Act
of 1947 and its amendments has been the basis for the structure and organ-
ization, ownership and relationships between the utilities until the end of
the 1990s. On 19 February 1999 this Act was replaced by the so-called
Elektrizitätswirtschafts- und -organisationsgesetz (in short: ElWOG 1),
which had to be implemented to meet the guidelines of the EU Directive
on electricity. But already one year later, in July 2000, ElWOG 2, a compre-
hensive amendment of ElWOG 1, was passed by the Austrian Parliament
and went into force in 2001. According to ElWOG 2 the Austrian electric-
ity market has been opened for all customers on 1 October 2001. A com-
prehensive description of the major features of this law as well as an
overview of recent developments and future prospects are given in the later
sections of this chapter.


HISTORICAL GROWN STRUCTURE OF THE
AUSTRIAN ELECTRICITY SUPPLY INDUSTRY

The Second Nationalization Act of 1947 stated that electricity supply in
Austria is a public task and has to be provided by public companies. The
only exception were utilities with generating capacities smaller than 200 kW
and with a total supply smaller than twice their self-generation. This law
...