Annual Report FY16: Energy Regulatory & Security Program in Europe & Eurasia

The program aimed to develop the Central/Eastern European and Eurasian regions' energy regulatory authorities and their networking opportunities. NARUC's partnerships provided regulatory capacity building for national regulators and key stakeholders, including policymakers, utilities, and consumer advocates. The program focused on several key areas, including regulatory capacity and association institutional development, regulatory reporting, monitoring, and transparency, regional regulatory cooperation, and promotion of energy security. NARUC collaborated closely with USAID, host regulators, USAID implementing partners, and other donors to ensure that partnership activities supported energy sector goals and complemented the U.S. Government economic growth initiatives. In FY16, NARUC engaged with regulators across the Black Sea region and Southeast Europe to strengthen economic growth, bolster energy security, and further the region's integration with Europe. NARUC assisted regulatory bodies within the region to align their regulatory frameworks with European Union requirements and develop the technical capacity and expertise to fully implement them. The Black Sea Regulatory Initiative (BSRI) was a key component of the program, with Phase II launched in FY16 to advance wholesale market development. NARUC worked with five regulatory counterparts: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The BSRI produced a finalized version of The Wholesale Market Guidelines for Black Sea Electricity Market Integration, outlining key immediate and mid-term steps for regulators to take to make progress on cross-border trade, balancing, and ancillary services, and renewable energy integration. NARUC also made significant progress on national roadmaps for BSRI countries. Supported by a consultant, these roadmaps identified and sequenced the preparation and adoption of market rules, supporting secondary legislation, targeted procedures, rules, and other by-laws in the individual project countries. Roadmaps for Armenia and Georgia were finalized in August, and others have significantly advanced in their development during FY16. The program's achievements included advancing renewable energy integration in the region, supporting a path toward more sustainable and clean power generation. NARUC's support also produced key developments in facilitating cross-border trade, developing competitive wholesale and retail markets, improving service quality and customer education, and enabling procurement of ancillary services. The program's performance indicators are tracked and reported on, with individual country partnerships' work plans providing more detail, including the specific Logical Framework. The status of Performance Indicators can be found in Appendix 1.