Article 18

Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity · European Union

1. In the case of the single buyer procedure, Member States shall designate a legal person to be the single buyer within the territory covered by the system operator. Member States shall take the necessary measures for: the publication of a non-discriminatory tariff for the use of the transmission and distribution system; eligible customers to be free to conclude supply contracts to cover their own needs with producers and, where Member States authorize their existence, with supply undertakings outside the territory covered by the system; eligible customers to be free to conclude supply contracts to cover their own needs with producers inside the territory covered by the system; independent producers to negotiate access to the system with the transmission and distribution systems operators so as to conclude supply contracts with eligible customers outside the system, on the basis of a voluntary commercial agreement. 2. The single buyer may be obliged to purchase the electricity contracted by an eligible customer from a producer inside or outside the territory covered by the system at a price which is equal to the sale price offered by the single buyer to eligible customers minus the price of the published tariff referred to in paragraph 1 (i). 3. If the purchase obligation under paragraph 2 is not imposed on the single buyer, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the supply contracts referred to in paragraph 1 (ii) and (iii) are implemented either via access to the system on the basis of the published tariff referred to in paragraph 1 (i) or via negotiated access to the system according to the conditions of Article 17. In the latter case, there would be no obligation for the single buyer to publish a non-discriminatory tariff for the use of the transmission and distribution system. 4. The single buyer may refuse access to the system and may refuse to purchase electricity from eligible customers where he lacks the necessary transmission or distribution capacity. Duly substantiated reasons must be given for such refusal, in particular having regard to Article 3.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-31 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.