Fsr Energy & Climate

The Euratom Treaty, signed in Rome on 25 March 1957, established the European Atomic Energy Community, alongside the European Economic Community (EEC). Its function is to provide a regulatory and cooperative framework which governs the development of nuclear energy and its trade across Europe, a kind of ‘nuclear common market’, which also funds cross-border research and development projects, upholds safety standards and procedures, notifies the potential impact of activities on other Member States, and ensures that nuclear materials are not deployed for military use. Euratom has established nuclear cooperation agreements with third countries, including Canada, Japan, and the USA, and sets out provisions for international compliance with nuclear safeguards. Euratom also reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). While a separate legal entity from the EU, it is tied to its laws and institutions, and subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). No country is a full member of

Competitiveness of wholesale energy markets is a fundamental goal of the EU since more than 20 years. Recently, specific pieces of legislation like REMIT have been introduced to foster market transparency and integrity. According to Clara Poletti – Head of the Energy Division at the Italian energy regulator ARERA (formerly known as AEEGSI) – national energy regulators are used to cooperate with national competition authorities and the European Commission to promote competition both ex-ante and ex-post. They are now obliged to adapt their procedures and praxis to the new rules. Beside traditional issues like abuse of market power and market foreclosure, they need to consider further cases of market abuse, not necessarily implemented by dominant players. Harmonised implementation across Europe is vital. A relevant example is represented by excessive pricing. Unfortunately, due to the current deployment of more capital intensive electricity generation technologies, it is more and more difficult to assess whethe

At the margins of the residential part of the Annual Training on the Regulation of Energy Utilities, Maria Olczak (FSR) talks with Aad Correljé (Clingendael, TU Delft) about LNG markets. In February 2016, the European Commission has published an EU strategy for liquefied natural gas and gas storage as a part of its sustainable energy security package. The LNG is perceived as an important element for ensuring energy security, especially in regions currently dependent on a single gas supplier, and hence vulnerable to any supply disruptions. Nevertheless, European countries need to compete with other markets, especially the Asiatic ones for the delivery of LNG. So far Europe has been perceived as a “market of last resort”, since LNG exporters have been targeting the premium consumers in Asia. Given that domestic gas production in Europe is declining faster than expected, competition for access to energy supplies will likely increase in the future.. Aad addresses two main questions - what will be the role for Eur

At the margins of the residential part of the Annual Training on the Regulation of Energy Utilities, Maria Olczak (FSR) discusses with Sergio Ascari (FSR; REF, Ricerche per l’Economia e la Finanza) current developments in Ukrainian gas market. In June 2017, at the latest meeting of the Eastern Partnership Platform 3 on Energy Security, the FSR has presented its recent study on Ukrainian gas market reforms. Sergio Ascari, who is one of the authors of the report, explains the main findings of the study. In the second part of the interview, Sergio Ascari explains the situation in Central and Eastern European countries, which was one of the regions that suffered the most during the 2009 gas crisis, but also invested heavily in the development of new infrastructure. However, security is not just a matter of hardware: infrastructures need to be complemented by the adoption of efficient market arrangements, i.e. a proper software.

In this podcast, Szymon Zaręba from the Polish Institute of International Affairs discusses the legislative developments surrounding the controversial Opal gas pipeline. The Opal pipeline was established in 2011 to export natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline across Germany to the Czech border, with it currently connecting with the JAGAL and STEGAL pipelines in Germany. Given the EU’s long-standing efforts to curtail the export monopoly of the Russian state-owned Gazprom, and with Russian gas still accounting for a third of Europe’s energy supplies, the pipeline remains one of the EU’s central energy disputes with Russia and has become a playing field for the exercise of EU law. Zaręba outlines the history of the pipeline project and details the complex legal developments surrounding its usage. Did you miss our webinar with Professor Kim Talus on the Baltic Sea Pipelines and EU law? You can catch the recording here: http://fsr.eui.eu/event/webinar-baltic-sea-pipelines-eu-law/

In 2016, Ukraine proposed for the re-establishment of an independent national energy and utilities regulatory body. The Draft Law No 2966-d, “On the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities Sector”, was signed into law by the President of Ukraine on 22 November 2016 following a decade-long campaign. This marks a significant step toward creating a competitive energy market in Ukraine, a reliable regulatory environment, and a meaningful reform of the country’s energy sector. The new law was developed in line with the Energy Community Treaty and Ukraine’s obligations to implement the EU’s Third Energy Package. Up until this point, the activities of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine (NEURC) had been governed by a series of legislative acts and could be dissolved on the basis of a presidential decision. Under the new law, the regulator’s functions shall include the issuing of resolutions, orders and regulatory acts, licensing conditions and the grant

There is no single way to organize the electricity industry at the world level. In the EU the industry is liberalized and the competitive segments are unbundled from those related to the management and planning of the grid. On the contrary, in countries such as Thailand one or few vertically integrated companies are responsible for the whole supply chain, i.e. from the generation to the transmission and distribution of electricity. Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) had the possibility to discuss it with Thanawadee Jaem On and Nicha Saiped, two engineers employed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). During the exchange of view, it came out that EGAT is facing challenges similar to those that utilities and regulators in Europe are trying to cope with (decentralization of power production, development of prosumers, digitalization). Interestingly enough, also in Thailand a change in gender balance is taking place with more and more women working in a sector traditionally populated by men.

Maria Olczak (FSR) and Dr. Niko Bosnjak (Energy Policy Manager at ONTRAS) discuss the integration of Electricity and Gas Networks. The rapid deployment of energy from renewable sources helps to tackle climate change, but at the same time poses new challenges to existing networks and the entire energy industry. One of them is the intermittency of renewables, since their output depends on the available sunlight, wind speeds and wave activity. How can we manage the intermittency? One of the answers is an integration of electricity and gas networks. Dr. Bosnjak explains how the use of gas grids contributes not only to the reliability and safety of the system, but also helps to save costs, e.g. those related to power grid expansion. This is one of the findings of the study on the German energy market commissioned by the Association of German Gas Transmission System Operators (FNB Gas e.V.). In the final part of the podcast, Dr. Bosnjak discusses the key obstacles preventing the integration of electricity and gas

Nicolò Rossetto (FSR Energy) and Josh Roberts (REScoop.eu) talk about the role of energy cooperatives in Europe and the role that local energy communities could play in the near future. According to Dr Roberts, citizens are getting more and more active in the energy markets, and they can play, via cooperatives and local communities, an important role in the energy transition. However, an adequate policy and regulatory framework are needed to ensure that both citizens and the whole energy system can benefit from the opportunities that new technological developments bring. The EU is important in this respect since it can promote a change in legislation that allows every European citizen to become a member of these communities, foster the energy transition and benefit from it. The proposal in the Clean Energy Package represents a potential breakthrough. However, energy communities are not a merely technical issue but should be based on the traditional principles of cooperatives, e.g. voluntary and democratic par

Nicolò Rossetto (FSR Energy) and Andrea Villa (Enel) discuss the proposal on local energy communities by the European Commission. Engaging more citizens and energy customers is an important move to achieve an efficient internal market for energy and foster the transition to a decarbonised economy. At the same time, the multiplication of entities in the electricity system, each of them with specific rights and duties, can create unnecessary hurdles. Citizens should be allowed to invest in renewables and easily access the market, but no artificial and expensive segmentation of the electricity system at the local level should be introduced. Keywords: local energy communities, Clean Energy Package, electricity markets, energy cooperatives, energy transition.

Maria Olczak (FSR) and Peter Fraser (Head of Gas, Coal and Power Markets Division at IEA) discuss the key messages coming from the latest edition of World Energy Outlook published on 14 November 2017. The major observed shifts include: massive deployment and failing costs of clean energy technologies, mainly solar; the significant growth in the electrification of energy; and the changing landscape of natural gas markets. The IEA predicts that natural gas will grow much faster than the other fossil fuel, especially in developing economies. In the second part of the interview, Peter Fraser explains how LNG is changing current global gas order and how rising LNG exports from the US are leading towards a more flexible and liquid global market, with major role of Qatar, Australia, USA. Podcast recorded on the sidelines of the workshop “Promoting a flexible, liquid and transparent global LNG market” organized jointly by the European Commission (DG Energy) and Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Flo

In this podcast, Dijana Dmitruk, legal advisor of the Danish Energy Agency, discusses the Danish-German cooperation agreement for mutually opened auctions of solar photovoltaics (PVs). This significant agreement allows projects located in Germany to receive support payments from the Danish state and vice versa, and may operate as a blueprint for future cooperation agreements. While cross-border cooperation has been encouraged at European level and promoted through the cooperation mechanisms put in place by Directive 2009/28/EC, there has been little uptake to date. Despite several hurdles, among them issues surrounding taxation rules and the permitting process, from an EU perspective cross-border auctions are considered to support the development of the internal market and investment in renewable energy systems. Dijana Dmitruk outlines the myriad challenges of the pilot test and what can be learned from it for future arrangements.

ENERGY REGULATION TRAINING – INDIAN OCEAN at Mauritius, July 20-21, 2017. In cooperation with Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) This blended training cycle consisted of three blocks specifically designed to meet the learning objectives of the Indian Ocean participants. The first block was a three-day kick-off residential training which provided an introduction to power systems and grid regulation; renewable energy (RE) and how to introduce them into power systems; and how to optimise energy efficiency (EE). The second block was an eight weeks online training focusing on the regulation of power systems which allowed the participants to concentrate on the main challenges within their local setting. The third and final block of the programme was a two-day residential training which allowed the participants to present their country cases and discuss RE and EE energy regulation and energy policy issues pertinent to their nations. Countries Participating: Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros and Réunion Swe

On the sidelines of the Florence School of Regulation Young Researcher’s Seminar, Pradyumna Bhagwat (FSR) and Joe Perkins (OFGEM) discuss the topics of electrical storage and electric mobility. Batteries can be expected to play a key role in providing balancing services. The trickier question is about “time-shifting”: whether batteries will provide intraday time shifting or even over a longer period. Furthermore, batteries could play a part in providing flexibility in a changing energy system. In the context of Electric Vehicles, it is vital that we have the right networks to support EVs. The question is about getting to the most efficient solution at least possible cost. National regulatory commission in the UK is looking at pathways for supporting Electric Vehicles.

In this podcast, Antonis Metaxas and Maria Charontaki discuss the implications of the Winter Package for the Greek energy market before considering the recent legislative amendment of the Electricity Customer Supply Code. The revision aims to strengthen consumer rights by promoting a greater level of transparency as regards energy consumption, improving consumer protection, and facilitating fair competition and the switching of suppliers.

During a conference in Milan Ilaria Conti, Head of Gas at the Florence School of Regulation, interviewed Daniele Agostini (ENEL), the head of ENEL Low-carbon and EU Energy Policy. Gas and electricity utilities are currently undergoing a deep restructuring – imposed by the changes that occurred at macroeconomic and regulatory level. In particular, the pressure coming from the decarbonisation challenge in Europe is accelerating the need for every company to look for new business models and make bets on future market developments. What’s the starting point? Which are the most important elements to consider in this model shift? And what should, or could, regulators do? According to Agostini, de-carbonisation is one of the major drivers of this change and a challenge that not only Europe, but most countries around the world are or will be facing. Of course, the pressure and the speed of change imposed by decarbonisation vary considerably from country to country. Utilities do not necessarily have to adapt quick

In the context of the first FSR Young Researcher Seminar (http://fsr.eui.eu/event/fsr-researcher-seminar/) held on 4-5 July 2017 in Florence, Luca Lo Schiavo, Infrastructure Regulation Deputy Director and Head of Innovative Regulation Unit at AEEGSI, has been interviewed about the Italian experience with smart meters by Tim Schittekatte (FSR). Italy is an interesting case as it can be considered as one of the frontrunners in the roll-out of smart meters. Already in 2001 the first smart meters were installed in the country. Today, the second generation of smart meters is introduced. To know more about the why and how, listen to the podcast! For more information on the topic: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/2/199/htm

The regional approach to the internal energy market: by what means? | Alberto Pototschnig (ACER) At the end of the Annual Conference of ACER near Ljubljana, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Alberto Pototschnig, the Director of the Agency for the Cooperation of the Energy Regulators (ACER), discuss the regional dimension of the internal energy market. Currently, there is a consensus that the EU has to move forward with regional cooperation in the field of electricity and gas. However, it is not yet clear how to implement such regionalisation. Thus far, the experience was mainly based on voluntary initiatives like the Pentalateral Energy Forum. Discussions on the matter are ongoing, with several questions hotly debated: what aspects should be part of the regional dimension? What geographical scope should the regions have? What are the most appropriate governance and regulatory frameworks for the regions? The discussion is particularly lively in the area of electricity, where ENTSO-E and the European Commission have p

At the margins of the RTE executive seminar, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) talks with Jean-Francois Gahungu (Coreso) about the cooperation of electricity transmission system operators at the regional level. Initiatives like the creation of Coreso in 2008 was undertaken by TSOs to ensure security of supply through better coordination and avoid disruptions to the supply of electricity like the one that happened in November 2006. Over the years, new services have been added and today Regional Security Coordinators (RSCs) like Coreso play an official role in the operation of the European transmission grid. Growing cross-border electricity trade and the integration of variable renewables make the role of such regional coordination centres more and more important. Cooperation among different RSCs is the next obvious step that Coreso and TSCnet have recently embarked on. Extreme events like the extraordinary safety control of the French nuclear fleet over the winter and the cold spell of January 2017 successfully tested the

On the sidelines of the FSR Executive Seminar on EU Power system operation and solidarity: the issues and practices, Pradyumna Bhagwat (FSR) and Jens Møller Birkebækt (Energinet.dk) discuss the regional operation of EU power systems. It can be expected that with growing interdependencies of markets and renewable implementation, there would be greater dependence on regional coordination of all activities related to power systems. The availability of a common grid model would not only be beneficial for the operations of the TSOs but also for all customers in the future. In the context emergency events, the risk of such events occuring will always exist. Therefore, it is important to be prepared for the restoration of the system if such low probability events do occur. Understanding how the system reacts, the adequacy of generation and the system state at a regional perspective would enable TSOs to restore the system more efficiently and may also aid in preventing crises.