EUROPEAN ELECTRICITY CLEARING SYSTEMS

Electricity is the basic energy medium of today's globalized world. The life of entire societies depends to a large extent on the availability, quality and electricity costs. The individual countries have different electricity clearing systems. These systems primarily take into account cost of electricity. However, in addition to it, there are other components that moderate national energy policy. These are, for example, the charges for: reactive energy, the lowering energy quality and also the charges for the development of renewable energy sources. In the article an analysis of the components of electricity costs in selected European countries was presented. Particular attention was paid to the components other than the active energy. In the article the correlation between the components of electricity costs and the policy of particular countries was presented. This type of policy is driven by the need to reduce the energy consumption by industrial equipment and households. A distinctive element in the relation between the components of the energy cost versus state policy is global policy for the development of renewable energy sources. In the conclusions proposed possible actions in the common European energy policy in the field of charges for electricity were presented. Such activities would be part of global energy policy.