Innovation and disruption are not new in the electricity sector, as we have seen in the last 30 years with open wholesale markets and combined cycle gas turbine power plants, open retail markets and real-time consumption metering. However, today, or tomorrow, we could face many more innovations and disruptions.
On the supply side one can see how renewable intermittent generation, and its low marginal costs, is becoming mainstream; and how storage is increasingly considered as a new important resource for managing the energy system. On the demand side one can see active consumers (as prosumers or prosumagers), new kind of intermediaries (as aggregators or communities), and digital tools of interaction (as sensors, actuators, or platforms).
Technologies are also redrawing the boundaries of the electricity sector, with an increasing electrification of road mobility, homes and buildings’ heating & cooling.
All these novelties call for new business models, from “green majors” to “asset light suppliers”, from “peer-to-peer” to “interactive building managers.” Possibly, the use of a strong carbon tax as the main incentive to fuel the energy transition, instead of targeted technology push by public authorities, might again change the entire landscape.
In these many waves, how will markets adapt, transform or disappear? Will China or Africa define their own ways?
Panel One (10:00-11:00 am Eastern Time)
“Disruption… or New Normal in the Power Sector?”
Moderator: Jean-Michel Glachant
Panellists:
A discussion with audience follows
Panel Two (11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern Time)
“Any Future for Markets? Any Market Perfectly Fit for Disruptions?”
Moderator: Michael Pollitt
Panellists:
Learn more on the topic: Electricity markets in times of (climate) change
This webinar series, jointly organized by the IAEE and the Florence School of Regulation, represents an opportunity to review all the fundamentals needed to have the electricity markets working.
Open markets for electricity in Europe and the US are approaching the age of 30. Their diversity, be it at the wholesale or the retail level, has never reduced significantly and no common model ever emerged on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Nor it did anywhere else. Today, we are still confronted with several serious stars in the US, such as PJM and Texas, and in Europe, such as the UK and the Nordics. On the top, we should not forget Australia. Surprisingly, only the EU has made, since 2016, a very serious effort of harmonization of market and network rules.
This fascinating debate, always half rational and half self-interested, has restarted to boil since a few years due the spectacular growth of renewables, demand response, storage, and so on and so forth. As the new Handbook on Electricity Markets, recently edited by Jean-Michel Glachant, Paul Joskow and Michael Pollitt, explores in depth.
Panel One (10:00-11:00 am Eastern Time)
“Electricity Markets Assessment: Europe”
Moderator: Jean-Michel Glachant
Panellists:
A discussion with audience follows
Panel two (11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern Time)
“Electricity Markets Assessment: the US”
Moderator: Catherine Wolfram
Panellists
A discussion with the audience will follow.
To meet, discuss and learn in the channel that suits you best.