- active customer
means a final customer, or a group of jointly acting final customers, who consumes or stores electricity generated within its premises located within confined boundaries or self-generated or shared electricity within other premises, or who sells self-generated electricity or participates in flexibility or energy efficiency schemes, provided that those activities do not constitute its primary commercial or professional activity;
- aggregation
means a function performed by a natural or legal person who combines multiple customer loads or generated electricity for sale, purchase or auction in any electricity market;
- ancillary service
means a service necessary for the operation of a transmission or distribution system, including balancing and non-frequency ancillary services, but not including congestion management;
- balance responsible party
means balance responsible party as defined in point (14) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- balancing
means balancing as defined in point (10) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- balancing energy
means balancing energy as defined in point (11) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- best available techniques
means, in the context of data protection and security in a smart metering environment, the most effective, advanced and practically suitable techniques for providing, in principle, the basis for complying with the Union data protection and security rules;
- billing information
means the information provided on a final customer's bill, apart from a request for payment;
- citizen energy community
means a legal entity that:
- congestion
means congestion as defined in point (4) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- contract termination fee
means a charge or penalty imposed on customers by suppliers or market participants engaged in aggregation, for terminating an electricity supply or service contract;
- control
means rights, contracts or other means which, either separately or in combination and having regard to the considerations of fact or law involved, confer the possibility of exercising decisive influence on an undertaking, in particular by:
- conventional meter
means an analogue or electronic meter with no capability to both transmit and receive data;
- customer
means a wholesale or final customer of electricity;
- demand response
means the change of electricity load by final customers from their normal or current consumption patterns in response to market signals, including in response to time-variable electricity prices or incentive payments, or in response to the acceptance of the final customer's bid to sell demand reduction or increase at a price in an organised market as defined in point (4) of Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1348/2014, whether alone or through aggregation;
- direct line
means either an electricity line linking an isolated generation site with an isolated customer or an electricity line linking a producer and an electricity supply undertaking to supply directly their own premises, subsidiaries and customers;
- distributed generation
means generating installations connected to the distribution system;
- distribution
means the transport of electricity on high-voltage, medium-voltage and low-voltage distribution systems with a view to its delivery to customers, but does not include supply;
- distribution system operator
means a natural or legal person who is responsible for operating, ensuring the maintenance of and, if necessary, developing the distribution system in a given area and, where applicable, its interconnections with other systems, and for ensuring the long-term ability of the system to meet reasonable demands for the distribution of electricity;
- dynamic electricity price contract
means an electricity supply contract between a supplier and a final customer that reflects the price variation in the spot markets, including in the day-ahead and intraday markets, at intervals at least equal to the market settlement frequency;
- electricity derivative
means a financial instrument specified in point (5), (6) or (7) of Section C of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, where that instrument relates to electricity;
- electricity markets
means markets for electricity, including over-the-counter markets and electricity exchanges, markets for the trading of energy, capacity, balancing and ancillary services in all timeframes, including forward, day-ahead and intraday markets;
- electricity supply contract
means a contract for the supply of electricity, but does not include electricity derivatives;
- electricity undertaking
means a natural or legal person who carries out at least one of the following functions: generation, transmission, distribution, aggregation, demand response, energy storage, supply or purchase of electricity, and who is responsible for the commercial, technical or maintenance tasks related to those functions, but does not include final customers;
- energy efficiency
means the ratio of output of performance, service, goods or energy, to input of energy;
- energy poverty
means energy poverty as defined in Article 2, point (52), of Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- energy sharing
means the self-consumption by active customers of renewable energy either:
- energy storage
means, in the electricity system, deferring the final use of electricity to a moment later than when it was generated, or the conversion of electrical energy into a form of energy which can be stored, the storing of such energy, and the subsequent reconversion of such energy into electrical energy or use as another energy carrier;
- energy storage facility
means, in the electricity system, a facility where energy storage occurs.
- final customer
means a customer who purchases electricity for own use;
- fixed-term, fixed-price electricity supply contract
means an electricity supply contract between a supplier and a final customer that guarantees that the contractual terms and conditions, including the price, remain unchanged for the duration of the contract, while it may, within a fixed price, include a flexible element with for example peak and off-peak price variations, and where changes in the resulting bill can only result from elements that are not determined by suppliers, such as taxes and levies;
- flexible connection agreement
means a set of agreed conditions for connecting electrical capacity to the grid that includes conditions to limit and control the electricity injection to and withdrawal from the transmission network or distribution network;
- fully integrated network components
means network components that are integrated in the transmission or distribution system, including storage facilities, and that are used for the sole purpose of ensuring a secure and reliable operation of the transmission or distribution system, and not for balancing or congestion management;
- generation
means the production of electricity;
- horizontally integrated undertaking
means an electricity undertaking performing at least one of the functions of generation for sale, or transmission, or distribution, or supply, and another non-electricity activity;
- household customer
means a customer who purchases electricity for the customer's own household consumption, excluding commercial or professional activities;
- imbalance settlement period
means imbalance settlement period as defined in point (15) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- independent aggregator
means a market participant engaged in aggregation who is not affiliated to the customer's supplier;
- integrated electricity undertaking
means a vertically integrated undertaking or a horizontally integrated undertaking;
- interconnected system
means a number of transmission and distribution systems linked together by means of one or more interconnectors;
- interconnector
means equipment used to link electricity systems;
- interoperability
means, in the context of smart metering, the ability of two or more energy or communication networks, systems, devices, applications or components to interwork to exchange and use information in order to perform required functions;
- market participant
means market participant as defined in point (25) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- microenterprise
means an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million;
- near real-time
means, in the context of smart metering, a short time period, usually down to seconds or up to the imbalance settlement period in the national market;
- non-frequency ancillary service
means a service used by a transmission system operator or distribution system operator for steady state voltage control, fast reactive current injections, inertia for local grid stability, short-circuit current, black start capability and island operation capability;
- non-household customer
means a natural or legal person who purchases electricity that is not for own household use, including producers, industrial customers, small and medium-sized enterprises, businesses and wholesale customers;
- producer
means a natural or legal person who generates electricity;
- recharging point
means an interface that is capable of charging one electric vehicle at a time or exchanging the battery of one electric vehicle at a time;
- regional coordination centre
means a regional coordination centre established pursuant to Article 35 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- related undertaking
means affiliated undertakings as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, and undertakings which belong to the same shareholders;
- renewable energy
means energy from renewable sources or renewable energy as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2018/2001;
- security
means both security of supply and provision of electricity, and technical safety;
- small connected system
means any system that had consumption of less than 3000 GWh in the year 1996, where more than 5 % of annual consumption is obtained through interconnection with other systems;
- small enterprise
means an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million;
- small isolated system
means any system that had consumption of less than 3000 GWh in the year 1996, where less than 5 % of annual consumption is obtained through interconnection with other systems;
- smart metering system
means an electronic system that is capable of measuring electricity fed into the grid or electricity consumed from the grid, providing more information than a conventional meter, and that is capable of transmitting and receiving data for information, monitoring and control purposes, using a form of electronic communication;
- start of works
means either the start of construction works on the investment or the first firm commitment to order equipment or other commitment that makes the investment irreversible, whichever is the first in time.
- supplier of last resort
means a supplier who is designated to take over the supply of electricity to customers of a supplier which has ceased to operate;
- supply
means the sale, including the resale, of electricity to customers;
- switching-related fee
means a charge or penalty for changing suppliers or market participants engaged in aggregation, including contract termination fees, that is directly or indirectly imposed on customers by suppliers, market participants engaged in aggregation or system operators;
- system user
means a natural or legal person who supplies to, or is supplied by, a transmission system or a distribution system;
- transmission
means the transport of electricity on the extra high-voltage and high-voltage interconnected system with a view to its delivery to final customers or to distributors, but does not include supply;
- transmission system operator
means a natural or legal person who is responsible for operating, ensuring the maintenance of and, if necessary, developing the transmission system in a given area and, where applicable, its interconnections with other systems, and for ensuring the long-term ability of the system to meet reasonable demands for the transmission of electricity;
- vertically integrated undertaking
means an electricity undertaking or a group of electricity undertakings where the same person or the same persons are entitled, directly or indirectly, to exercise control, and where the undertaking or group of undertakings performs at least one of the functions of transmission or distribution, and at least one of the functions of generation or supply;
- wholesale customer
means a natural or legal person who purchases electricity for the purpose of resale inside or outside the system where that person is established;