The Public Utilities Commission (hereinafter – PUC) has evaluated the report of Augstsprieguma tīkls AS (hereinafter – AST) on its compliance with the requirements for certification and independence for the last year. PUC concludes that AST complies with the certification requirements, and the measures taken to ensure independence are sufficient.

In accordance with the Electricity Market Law, the operation of the transmission system operator AST shall be separated from electricity generation, distribution, and trade, which AST successfully accomplished last year.

On 25 November, last year, the reorganisation of the owner of the electricity transmission system – Latvijas elektriskie tīkli AS was successfully completed, merging it with AST. As part of the reorganisation, AST took over all assets, liabilities, rights and obligations of AS Latvijas elektriskie tīkli, as a result of which AST has become the electricity transmission system operator, which owns the electricity transmission system.

Consequently, the ownership unbundling model of the transmission system operator has been fully implemented, and in the future, PUC will assess only the compliance of AST with the certification and independence requirements as an operator that also owns the transmission system.

AST has equally confirmed that the resources at its disposal are sufficient to ensure the provision of the electricity transmission system service in Latvia. The operator has equally provided all the necessary information to enable PUC to be sure that all participants of the system and market have been treated fairly and equally.

In accordance with the procedures specified by PUC, AST submits an annual report on its compliance with the certification requirements, including independence requirements. The report of ASTs was submitted to PUC for evaluation on 30 June this year.

The Public Utilities Commission