Source - Ei Ställningstagande Ei2025-01 Villkorade avtal (2025)

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What is a ställningstagande?

A new Ei publication format introduced in 2025. Purpose: to clarify and summarize how Ei interprets specific regulatory areas, in response to requests from stakeholders for greater clarity. Each ställningstagande summarizes the applicable rules and states Ei’s view on how they should be applied. Can be updated when legal practice changes.

Ei2025:01 is the first publication in the series, addressing perceived ambiguities in the rules for Villkorade Avtal.

Summary

Ei sets out four formal positions on the use of conditional connection agreements (villkorade avtal). The document builds on Ei R2023:08‘s core finding (villkorade avtal = non-market-based redispatching) and adds important new operational rules: which DSO level bears the obligation, that Ei must approve the method before any agreement is signed, that activation requires a fresh assessment after each gate closure, and that agreements may only be signed where actual capacity shortage exists — not preemptively.

Position 1: The DSO with the physical constraint bears the obligation (§ 2.1)

Core rule: The DSO in whose own network the capacity constraint exists is responsible for resolving it. This applies at all grid levels.

In practice for multi-level congestion: When a local DSO (lokalnätsföretag) wants to connect new customers but faces a capacity constraint in the overlying regional or transmission grid, it cannot resolve the constraint itself. The correct path:

1. The local DSO requests a raised subscription/connection capacity from the overlying grid operator (same rules as a new connection — must be delivered within skälig tid, 4 kap. 5 § ellagen)
2. The overlying DSO/TSO (the one with the physical constraint) bears the obligation to resolve it, or demonstrate that resolution is not economically justified (4 kap. 2 § ellagen)
3. If the underlying DSO believes the overlying operator is taking too long, it must file a report to Ei for review (4 kap. 13 § ellagen)

What the underlying DSO can still do:

• Design network tariffs that relieve the connection point to the overlying grid
• Procure flexible resources within its own network
• Request a raised connection based on long-term demand forecasts

Cross-level flexibility procurement: The overlying DSO can contract flexibility directly with resources in the underlying DSO’s network. The underlying DSO may administer procurement and activation, but the financial responsibility lies with the overlying DSO — since flexibility service costs are generally not customer-specific and must be spread across the overlying DSO’s customer collective.

Villkorade avtal in this context: A lower-level DSO cannot use villkorade avtal to handle congestion that is actually in the overlying network. Villkorade avtal = non-market-based measure requiring Art. 13(3) exceptions; these cannot be invoked for constraints the DSO doesn’t control. Annual redispatching reports to Ei are required (Art. 13.4, Regulation 2019/943).

Position 2: Ei must approve the method for contract terms before any villkorat avtal is signed (§ 2.2)

Legal basis: 4 kap. 46 § ellagen — a DSO may not enter into connection or electricity transfer agreements until Ei has reviewed and approved the methods used to design the contract terms.

What this means for villkorade avtal: The terms regulating when and how transmission may be limited, and when those limitations cease, are specific to conditional agreements and differ fundamentally from standard connection agreement terms. A DSO cannot use its standard connection agreement method approval as cover for villkorade avtal.

Ei’s assessment: Ei evaluates whether the method leads to objective, non-discriminatory terms. Without approved method: no villkorade avtal may be signed.

Customer recourse: A customer unsatisfied with the offered agreement may file a complaint with Ei under 4 kap. 13 § ellagen. Ei may also open supervisory proceedings.

Position 3: Villkorade avtal constitute redispatching; activation is last resort, assessed before each dispatch (§ 2.3)

Classification (reaffirms Ei R2023:08)

Villkorade avtal = non-market-based redispatching (omdirigering), per:

• Art. 2.26 of Regulation 2019/943: redispatching = action changing production/load patterns to reduce physical overloading or ensure system security (includes limitation of allocated capacity)
• Art. 13 of Regulation 2019/943: redispatching must first be procured through market-based mechanisms

Why villkorade avtal are not market-based:

1. Not voluntary — customer must sign to get connected; no market alternative offered
2. Price not set by open supply/demand competition
3. Not open to all actors on equal terms

New: activation timing rules

After gate closure, per dispatch: Activation is only permitted when:

1. Trading for the operating quarter has closed (gate closure)
2. All market-based alternatives are exhausted
3. The merit-order assessment shows the grid will be overloaded without intervention

The assessment must be made before each individual activation — standing pre-authorizations are not permitted.

DSO communication permitted in advance: DSOs may inform resource owners that activation might be needed (e.g., after day-ahead market results are available), but the formal activation decision can only be taken at gate closure.

Explicit reference to NC DR: Ei notes that “more detailed regulation on activation of redispatching will likely be provided in the network code on demand response (nätkoden för efterfrågeflexibilitet)” — referencing the ACER March 2025 submission. Ei’s ställningstagande is based on current rules and will be updated as the NC DR is adopted.

Figure 3 in the source document presents the decision tree for when non-market activation is permitted.

Position 4: Villkorade avtal may only be signed where actual, existing capacity shortage exists (§ 2.4)

Core rule: Villkorade avtal may only be signed when connecting to a network with limited or no remaining capacity. Precautionary use for potential future constraints or general operational risk management is not permitted.

Why: The legal basis for villkorade avtal flows from the connection obligation (4 kap. 1 § ellagen) and Art. 13 of Regulation 2019/943. If there is no actual capacity shortage, there is no basis for a non-market redispatching agreement. Terms implying broader curtailment rights than the DSO actually holds are: (a) misleading, (b) give the customer worse rights than the law provides, and (c) contrary to 4 kap. 1 § ellagen — deemed “oskäliga” (unreasonable).

New EU requirement — Art. 6a of the amended Electricity Market Directive: The new article (from the 2024 directive amendment) requires Member States to establish a national framework for when conditional connection agreements may be signed in areas with limited/no grid capacity. Sweden must implement this in national law. Timing not specified in the document.

Voluntary flexibility arrangements: If a DSO and customer want to agree on an ongoing flexibility arrangement (outside the connection process), it must be structured as a service procured under 3 kap. 4 § ellagen or the public procurement act (LOU/LUF), on an open, equal, and non-discriminatory basis. It cannot be embedded in the connection agreement as a villkorat avtal.

Other regulatory documents referenced

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