European Parliament Backs Non-fossil Flexibility and Supports Energy Storage

19 July 2023: The European Parliament, through its ITRE Committee, backed a deal to support non-fossil flexibility and energy storage, ahead of trilogue negotiations on the Electricity Market Design.

The Parliament’s position introduces a range of new provisions to support the deployment of flexible technologies, such as energy storage. Member States would now have the powers to set up non-fossil flexibility support schemes, which provide energy storage a solid business case. Additionally, EU countries must now assess the flexibility needed in the electricity system to deploy further sources of renewable energy in line 2030 climate goals, and set a national objective for energy storage. The Commission will also introduce a Strategy for Energy Storage from 2025, to ensure a harmonised approach across the EU.

EASE Policy Officer Thomas Lewis statement:

1. On new provisions for flexibility

“The result of today’s vote today is a positive step to better align Europe’s electricity market towards our climate and energy goals. The introduction of flexibility support schemes will give investors' confidence in energy storage technologies to provide the flexibility needed to integrate further renewable energy.

EASE is pleased to see that this deal ensures in-depth assessments for flexibility at both the national and European level, and crucially introduces a Union Strategy on Demand Response and Energy Storage from 2025 with the possibility of EU-level targets.”

2. On rejecting fossil-fuel dependency

“Members of Parliament rightly rejected any attempts to allow for further subsidies to prop-up coal through capacity mechanisms. In the future, we hope to see stricter CO2 emissions limits implemented to ensure swift decarbonisation of back-up power and the uptake of energy storage.”

Next steps

• EMD Rapporteur, MEP Casares (S&D, Spain) will take this compromise straight to trilogue negotiations as the Parliament's position with the Commission and Council. ITRE voted to bypass a full plenary vote since the agreement is based on a broad consensus between the four largest political groups: S&D, EPP, Renew Europe and the Greens.
• The Council has yet to adopt its position on the EMD. Once it does, trilogue negotiations can begin.