The European Commission said on Thursday it had approved the British Capacity Market scheme that is designed to safeguard security of electricity supply in the country.
The Commission initially approved the scheme, which was introduced in 2014, but its decision was annulled on procedural grounds by the European court in 2018 following an appeal from a company operating in the market.
The court found that the Commission should have opened an in-depth investigation to gather more information. It should, for example, have gathered information on energy consumers willing to reduce their consumption when needed.
The Commission duly opened an in-depth investigation in February 2019.
The Commision found that there was no evidence that capacity providers or the consumers ready to reduce consumption were at a disadvantage and found that the scheme was in line with EU state aid rules.
