Prop. 2019/20:53 Underskott Elnätsföretagens Intäktsramar 2012-2015 (2019)

Proposition 2019/20:53, “Underskott i förhållande till elnätsföretagens intäktsramar för tillsynsperioden 2012–2015”, submitted by the Löfven government (Anders Ygeman, Infrastrukturdepartementet), decided 5 December 2019, in force 1 April 2020. The legal episode that produced today’s överrullning (revenue-cap true-up) rule and set up the later särskilt investeringsutrymme law.

Background

Kammarrätten i Jönköping ruled on 11 February 2019 (mål nr 2700-18 m.fl., upholding Förvaltningsrätten i Linköpings dom of 3 September 2018) that DSOs whose revenue-cap (intäktsram) had been increased for the 2016–2019 period — because their actual 2012–2015 revenue fell short of that period’s cap — could carry that increase forward again into the 2020–2023 period. The courts found nothing in the then-current ellagen text supported the government’s position that a cap deficit could only be used in the single following period and was otherwise lost. This directly contradicted the legislature’s stated intent in both Prop. 2008/09:141 (introducing förhandsprövning) and Prop. 2017/18:237 (the 2019 ellagen rewrite): a DSO should not be able to accumulate multiple periods’ deficits.

What this proposition does

Introduces a new transitional provision to the ellagen amendments of Lag (2018:1448): when Ei applies the (post-2019) rules on cap deviations to the 2016–2019 period for the first time, any cap increase that period received under the old rules (5 kap. 20 § in its former wording) must be disregarded — i.e., blocks the 2012–2015 deficit from carrying forward into 2020–2023 via the mechanism the courts had just upheld.

Stakes: without this law, DSOs could have raised customer fees during 2020–2023 by an estimated 28 billion SEK in aggregate, unevenly distributed — smaller DSOs typically had larger unused 2012–2015 headroom than the large incumbents, who had used more of their original cap.

Legal reasoning (property rights / EU law challenges)

Ellevio, E.ON, Vattenfall, Energiföretagen Sverige and several smaller DSOs formally objected on constitutional and EU-law grounds — this proposition contains an unusually detailed rebuttal:

• Egendomsskydd (property protection): Regeringsformen 2 kap. 15 §, ECHR Protocol 1 Art. 1, EU Charter Art. 17. The government concludes the cap deficit is not “existing property” — an intäktsram limits what a DSO may charge, it does not create a claim against customers, so a not-yet-realized cap deficit cannot be an accrued asset. Also finds no “legitimate expectations” under ECHR case law, since the relevant court process only concluded in 2019 and legislative intent had been consistently stated since 2009.
• Rätten till en rättvis rättegång (fair trial, ECHR Art. 6.1): the law does not retroactively overturn the Kammarrätten judgment’s substance (which only concerned the 2016–2019 cap decisions themselves), only its forward practical effect.
• Proportionality and rule-of-law principles, incl. Energy Charter Treaty Art. 10/13: found compliant — the measure prevents large, uneven fee increases with no matching customer benefit, and is paired with the promised follow-up law giving DSOs a conditional route to use the old deficit (see below).

The promised follow-up: särskilt investeringsutrymme

This proposition explicitly commits the government to a second law letting DSOs use the blocked 2012–2015 deficit, but only for grid investment during 2020–2027, subject to a threshold (investment must exceed 1% of the capital base — the raw does not give a specific valuation date for this, “2019-12-31” is not stated here) and a cost-share rule (only 75% of the amount exceeding the 1% threshold may be credited toward the special allowance, per the raw’s actual mechanism — not a literal 75/25 funding split). That commitment became Lag (2021:311) om särskilt investeringsutrymme för elnätsverksamhet, in force 1 June 2021 — see Source - Överrullning av Intäkter Energiföretagen (2019-2023) for the full path from commitment to enactment, and Source - Prop. 2025-26-26 Regelverket för Framtidens El- och Gasnät (2025) for the 2025 decision to keep this law rather than repeal it as a later inquiry (SOU 2023:64) proposed.

Relevance to the wiki

Primary legal source behind the Överrullning glossary entry — supplies the founding court case (Kammarrätten i Jönköping, 11 February 2019), the legislative fix, and the constitutional/EU-law reasoning that later resurfaces (with the roles reversed) in the Tysklandsdomen-driven reform debate — see Source - Särskilt Yttrande SOU 2023-64 Marling Liljegren (2023) and RP5 Revenue Cap Methodology (2028–2031) › Capital base valuation — normvärdering.