Fsr Energy & Climate

In this podcast, Jessica Dabrowski (FSR) and Agnes da Costa (Director, Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy) discuss Brazil's long history of renewable energy development. Agnes provides in-depth insight on the current status of Brazil's renewable energy mix, developments in their transport sector and provides key lessons for other countries to best address challenges of the energy transition and unlock their further growth of renewable energy. The podcast also briefly turns to the Sim, elas existem, or Yes, they exist initiative which has started as a grassroots movement by Agnes and her colleague Renata Beckert Isfer. The initative recently had the spotlight after publishing a list of 163 qualified women and handing it over to the transition team of the new government to give them the chance to appoint women to leadership positions. *Correction Notice: 6:50 speaker mistakenly states the transport sector is leading instead of lagging behind.

In the context of the Energy Innovation Academy held in Florence on 28-30 November 2018, Tim Schittekatte (FSR) interviews one of the Academy participants, John Smith (University of Hertfordshire) who presented his work on ‘An ecological stock-flow consistent approach to macroeconomic stability, entropy, and chaos’. What do we mean by innovation? How can regulation deal with change in complex adaptive system, in the process of energy transitions? For more information on the FSR Energy Innovation Area, please visit: http://fsr.eui.eu/energy-innovation/

In the context of the Energy Innovation Academy held in Florence on 28-30 November 2018, the FSR Director Jean-Michel Glachant interviews Miguel Vazquez, Head of the recently launched Energy Innovation Area. Regulation in times of innovation: how to deal with complexity and uncertainty? The new FSR area provides a platform for research, training and policy discussion to respond to those challenges. More information here: http://fsr.eui.eu/energy-innovation/

The EU-funded SmartNet project http://fsr.eui.eu/event/smartnet-workshop-series/ organised in Florence (24 to 26 October) aimed to present the recent development of this research project and get feedback from different participants (TSOs/DSOs, regulators and utilities) on topics related to the coordination between TSOs and DSOs for the access to flexibility services. In this podcast, Athir Nouicer (FSR) interviews David Ziegler from Germany, a participant of the first day of the workshop, to share with you some insights from the project and also how the project could feed the EU regulations; Clean Energy Package and Network Codes. Different TSO-DSO coordination schemes were compared with reference to three national cases (Italian, Danish, and Spanish) against a set of metrics: mFRR, aFRR cost and ICT cost as well as CO2 emissions and unexpected congestions. This aims to reduce the project complexity and provide a straightforward cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the different alternatives. In addition, three phy

The EU-funded SmartNet project is attracting interest from Europe and beyond. Professor Luis Ochoa (https://bit.ly/2Pj4pRa), from the University of Melbourne (Australia), joined the workshop http://fsr.eui.eu/event/smartnet-workshop-series/ organised in Florence to explore the latest novelties on related topics with a global relevance: the integration of the growing number of distributed energy resources (DER) and the coordination of transmission and distribution electricity systems. In this podcasts with Nicolò Rossetto (FSR), Professor Ochoa reflects on the difficulty of addressing the issue, especially considering the growing expectation to use DER not only to supply flexibility to the transmission system, but also to provide flexibility to the local grid. Market-based integration of DER requires coordination of the market at the local level with the market at the transmission (wholesale) level, taking into account the numerous issues that arise when dealing with low voltages and radial grids. Australia,

On the sideline of the FSR Policy Advisory Council meeting on the 5th and 6th of November 2018, Christophe Poillion (Vice President of European Affairs, GRT Gaz) and Tara Amirkhizi (Visiting PhD student, FSR) discuss the power to gas technology and the experience the French gas TSO has had with it so far. In an energy grid that perceives power and gas as a whole, Christophe describes power to gas as a conversion technology that can allow the already established gas grid to offer capacity and flexibility to the full energy system. Besides the grid services, power to gas is also a carbon capturing technology. Using the hydrogen from P2G, CO2 is converted to Syngas and be used in the gas grid. Pilot projects, such as the French project Jupiter 1000, are an approach for European TSOs to gain the technological expertise for the operation of power to gas facilities. These projects enable this technology to reach a certain maturity level, in order to be competitive. Besides the technology maturity, a well-function

Recently, reliability options were implemented as part of the new Irish integrated single electricity market (I-SEM). Thus becoming the first European Union Member state implement this capacity remuneration mechanism design. Pradyumna Bhagwat (FSR) discusses with Barry Hussey, Manager at the Irish Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), about his thoughts on reliability options in Ireland and the experience with the recently held first auction.

In a ruling from the WTO, published on 10 August 2018, several of Russia’s arguments regarding the alleged incompatibility of the EU’s energy policy measures with multilateral trade rules were dismissed. But was it a total defeat for Russia? In this podcast Moritz Wüstenberg, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, discusses the ruling and its wider implications. Following Russia’s withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty in 2009, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules offer the only comprehensive regulatory framework for EU- Russia energy trading, which means that the compatibility of WTO rules with the EU energy policy is vital. The key ambition of the Third Energy Package was to advance the integration of the internal energy market, and thus it contains legislation on unbundling – the separation of energy supply and generation from the operation of transmission networks, non-discriminatory access to energy infrastructures and the independence of national energy regulators. Russia had claimed

Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Dr Carlo Stagnaro (Istituto Bruno Leoni, IBL) reflect on the potential benefits of competition in retail electricity markets and briefly discuss the situation in Italy, where a standard regulated offer, called “Maggior Tutela” in Italian, is available to households and small companies. According to Dr Stagnaro, the offer’s design nurtures consumers’ inertia and market concentration, limiting the ability and willingness of energy suppliers to develop innovative solutions and products. A proposal to accelerate the transition to a genuinely competitive and dynamic retail market is presented at the end. Interested in learning more about the Italian situation and the policy proposal? Read the recently published FSR working paper on the topic: http://fsr.eui.eu/publications/managing-the-liberalization-of-italys-retail-electricity-market-a-policy-proposal/

In this podcast, Dr. Tanya Harrington delves into the complex geopolitical, economic, and legal issues surrounding Brexit and the Irish electricity market. For more details, see here: http://fsr.eui.eu/the-irish-question-brexit-and-the-i-sem/

Energy poverty is a widespread and even growing reality across Europe. The EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC) measured in 2013 shows that 10.7% of the population (approximately 54 million people) are unable to afford basic levels of energy for essential needs. Listen to Prof Pippo Ranci from FSR, and Prof Stefan Bouzarovski from Manchester University discuss; some of the EU energy poverty initiatives, challenges and ways to put the topic of energy poverty at the centre of energy policy discussions.

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) poses several questions to Miguel Pardo (Endesa) about the pilot project being carried out in Barcelona. Vodafone, which is among the several partners involved, owns 20 radio base stations that are used as distributed energy resources (DER). Such stations participate in a simulated local market and provide ancillary services for the efficient and secure functioning of the electricity system. According to Mr Pardo, the pilot is proving the feasibility of the concept proposed. At the same time, Vodafone is showing interest in continuing the cooperation and applying the same business model on a broader scale. Final results of the pilot will be available in the coming months. More information on the SmartNet Project can be found at: http://smartnet-project.eu/.

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, Athir Nouicer (FSR) interviewed Dr. Tomás Gómez San Román, Professor at Comillas Pontifical University, about the impacts of the SmartNet project on the future of electricity markets. SmartNet has three pilot projects (in Italy, Denmark and Spain) that address technical issues related to system operation and test the different TSO/DSO coordination schemes, which can be hard to assess even for regulators. Dr. Tomás Gómez highlighted the need to improve TSO/DSO cooperation to ease access to flexibility services located in distribution grids, and emphasised the challenges of integrating market and networks models in these kinds of research projects. The added value of the SmartNet project is providing insights for the development of a legal framework in Europe. More information on the SmartNet Project can be found at: http://smartnet-project.eu/.

Before the start of the SmartNet workshop in Brussels on the 20 June, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) had the opportunity to talk with Gianluigi Migliavacca (RSE) about the importance of the project and the insights that it is expected to provide to policy-makers, regulators, network companies, and market players. SmartNet is testing different coordination mechanisms for the efficient and secure management of distributed energy resources as providers of ancillary services to the electricity system. Three pilot projects are underway, respectively in Italy, Spain and Denmark, with the involvement of TSOs, DSOs, aggregators, research institutes, energy consumers, etc. Next October, detailed results on the pilot projects and the research promoted within SmartNet will be presented in Florence. More information on the SmartNet Project can be found at: http://smartnet-project.eu/.

Listen to our interview with Tony Imaduwa, CEO of Seychelles Energy Commission, conducted during the first Regional Forum on Sustainable Energy in Mauritius from May 28-30, 2018. Tony discusses the role of the Seychelles Energy Commission, the regulatory challenges that are hindering the energy transition, and the measures that have been introduced to address these challenges.

Listen to our interview with Laurent Sam, Engineer at Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Seychelles, at the first Regional Forum of on Sustainable Energy at Mauritius from May 28-30, 2018. Laurent discusses the key challenges such as resource mapping, renewable energy planning, grid management and efficient use of funding while integrating renewables into the power system. visit the Florence School of Regulation website: fsr.eui.eu

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, Athir Nouicer (FSR) interviewed Helena Gerard, Senior Researcher at VITO/EnergyVille, for insight on the five TSO-DSO coordination schemes analysed by the SmartNet Project. A Horizon 2020 funded project, SmartNet attempts to find answers and propose new practical solutions to the integration of growing renewable energy sources (RES) in the existing European electricity network. The project aims to provide optimised instruments and modalities to improve the coordination between grid operators at national and local level, and to advance the exchange of information for monitoring the acquisition of ancillary services from resources located in the distribution grids. With the development of renewables and the electrification of energy end-uses, the electricity system requires more flexibility. At the same time, more flexible resources are available at the local level. As argued in the interview, a smart allocation of these flexibility resources b

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, N. Rossetto (FSR) interviewed SmartNet team member H. Madsen (DTU) to discuss the importance and impact of SmartNet pilot project B. The pilot is based in Denmark, where the abundance of wind energy requires a smart approach to achieve decarbonisation of the power sector efficiently. In such a context, the electricity load from final customers must contribute and provide flexibility to the system. As a part of the pilot, the heated swimming pools of thirty summerhouses are managed so that they can provide ancillary services when the electricity grid faces difficulties in dealing with renewable production. Active participation of the demand side is key to foster the energy transition and can lead to significant savings for the final customer. However, in order for this to happen, policy-makers and regulators need to act: smart behaviours by network operators and market actors may not materialise without proper network tariffs and energy taxat

In this podcast, Panagiotis Tsangaris, alumnus of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, discusses the competition law and regulation issues that arise as a result of capacity withdrawals in the electricity wholesale markets, exploring the application of Article 102 TFEU and the terms of Regulation 1227/2011 (REMIT). visit the Florence School of Regulation website: fsr.eui.eu In electricity wholesale markets, market power is mainly exercised either by withdrawing generation capacity (physical withdrawal) or by pricing it above competitive levels (economic withdrawal) in order to achieve a higher market price and, thereby, increase revenue. Inevitably, capacity withdrawal practices can be damaging for both the market and consumers. Thus, the ability of competent authorities to intervene against practices of physical and economic withholding of capacity is crucial. As with any other form of market abuse, the physical and economic withholding of capacity is subject to the application of compe

Malagasy regulator's view on the electrification and clean energy transition in Madagascar. Listen to our interview with Ms Ketakandriana Rabemananjara, Director (Legal) of Office de Régulation de l'Electricité (ORE), Madagascar, at the first Regional Forum of on Sustainable Energy at Mauritius from May 28-30, 2018. Ms Ketakandriana discussed the dual challenge of electrifying while transitioning to a clean energy system. In particular how the regulator can play an active role in helping to step up the implementation.