FSR Energy Seminar Series with Professor R. Baldick (University of Texas at Austin)

Traditional analysis of distribution network tariff design assumes a lack of alternatives to grid connection for the fulfilment of consumers’ electricity needs. This is radically changing with breakthroughs in two technologies:

1. Photovoltaics (PV) enable domestic and commercial consumers to self-produce energy;
2. Batteries allow consumers and self-producers to gain control over their energy and capacity parameters.

In this research, the grid cost recovery problem for the Distribution System Operator is modelled as a non-cooperative game between (more than ever) elastic consumers. It is demonstrated that in this new state of the world both efficiency and equity issues can arise when distribution network charges are ill-designed.

Presenter: Tim Schittekatte (FSR)

Invited Discussant: Prof. Ross Baldick

The Seminar is organised by the Research Team of the Florence School of Regulation – Energy and open to all EUI members.

The Policy Advisory Council gathers renowned academics, experts from leading energy companies (being also FSR-Energy Major Donors) as well as representatives from the European Commission, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and National Regulatory Authorities to discuss and test the relevance and robustness of FSR research.

As in previous editions, the Florence School will experiment new interactive formats to enable and facilitate the debate and brainstorming among participants and the FSR discussants.

The event will be divided as follows:

• Day I: EU Clean Energy Package: Energy Communities and FSR Training

• Day II: Gas in the energy transition: which regulatory and policy challenges?

Please note that this is a closed event and participation is by invitation only.

Solidarity and Security of gas supply: the (im)possible match?

Join our online debate on 28 September 2017, 10am CEST

On 12th September, the European Parliament voted in the plenary the revised Security of Gas Supply Regulation. The aim of the new regulation is to prevent potential gas supply crises and, for the first time, it applies the solidarity principle. It means that in the event of a serious gas crisis, neighbouring Member States will be obliged to help their neighbours out to ensure gas supply to protected consumers – households and essential social services. There are more novelties, as the new legislation strengthens regional cooperation and transparency, as natural gas utilities will be obliged to notify long-term contracts that are relevant for EU security of supply.

During the event, the experts will discuss in details the main changes proposed by the revised Security of Gas Supply Regulation and their potential impact on energy security in the EU. They will also try to address the fundamental question –in case of emergency, (how) can solidarity and the need for security coexist?

Moderator:

Ilaria Conti, Head of FSR Gas

Speakers:

• Andris Piebalgs, former Energy Commissioner and Senior Fellow at FSR
• Walter Boltz, former Vice-Chair of the ACER Board of Regulators and Vice-President of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER)
• Hendrik Pollex, ENTSOG Business Area Manager 

Watch the Recording

“Renewables and the transition to a sustainable energy future”

FSR Meeting with IRENA

On Wednesday 13^th September 2017 , a delegation from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is visiting the Florence School of Regulation at the European University Institute, in Florence (IT).

On this occasion, the Director General of IRENA, Mr. Adnan Z. Amin, will present on the role of renewables in the transition towards a sustainable energy future.

Please note that access to this event is restricted to EUI members. Should you be interested in attending, please write to: ilaria.bellacci@eui.eu

Download the Programme

This workshop is the first joint initiative of the FSR Energy Law & Policy Area and both the Governance and Regulation Chair and the Chaire European Electricity Markets of Paris-Dauphine Univeristé. The aim of the workshop is to take a legal and economic approach to a range of current issues surrounding the intersection of State aid and energy policy in the Energy Transition. There will be a particular focus on the role of subsidies in a low carbon future, debating whether State aid controls can be deemed an adequate industrial policy tool in the wider move toward decarbonisation, and on the legal and economic issues that arise in the support for centralised versus decentralised forms of energy production.

Context:

EU State aid regulations play a significant role in shaping the internal energy market, defining both the market design and regulations in areas such as the support for clean technologies (renewables, nuclear, energy efficiency, etc.), security of supply (resource adequacy and capacity mechanisms), infrastructures (PCI, etc.) or R&D and innovation. The State aid rules for energy and the environment have evolved over time to streamline a number of processes and to provide more specific guidelines on some of the key issues such as capacity mechanisms.

In the context of the EU Energy Transition, a number of emerging issues will need to be examined. For instance, as a large part of investments and public support for clean technologies is going to be channelled into small-scale decentralised projects, the General Block Exemption approach may need to be revisited. Questions are also likely to emerge regarding the role of the actors in the regulated parts of the value chain, in particular, network operators in the provision of new energy services or data management. A key point remains the treatment of nuclear energy, where any form of support still needs to be referred to the Commission on a case-by-case basis. Capacity mechanisms and the treatment of energy-intensive industries are additional issues.

The workshop will review the different interfaces between State aid policies and the internal energy market from academic research and the experiences of practitioners. As technologies, consumer behaviour, and policy objectives evolve, the conference will debate how competition and State aid policy will need to adapt in order to support the development of an efficient internal energy market.

RECENT TRENDS AND KEY ISSUES FOR STATE AID IN ENERGY MARKETS

Céline Gauer | European Commission 

STATE AID CONTROL, SECURITY OF SUPPLY AND THE ROLE OF CAPACITY MECHANISMS

Fabien Roques | Compass Lexecon and University Paris Dauphine & Guillaume Dezobry | Fidal and University of Amiens

STATE AID CONTROL AND THE ROLE OF NETWORK OPERATORS IN THE CONTEXT OF SMART GRIDS / SMART METERINGS

Olivier Fréget | De Panafieu Advocats

ENERGY POLICY, INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND STATE AID

Pablo Ibanez Colomo | LSE & College of Europe

THE INTERPLAY OF ENERGY POLICY AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION

Patrice Geoffron | University Paris-Dauphine

IT’S ELECTRIFYING! STATE AID AND E-MOBILITY

Vincent Verouden | E.CA Economics

Download the programme 

Please note that the workshop will take place in English.

Co-organisers:

FSR Regulatory Policy Workshop Series 2017-2018

Demand Participation in Electricity Markets and Demand Response: Regulatory Framework and Business Models

The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources in the electricity sector, more variable and less predictable than conventional generation, requires more flexible electricity systems and markets. Demand can significantly contribute to this increased flexibility through demand participation in markets and demand response. The Commission’s proposals in the “Clean Energy for all Europeans” Package, which promotes the participation of demand in all market time frames, including in ancillary services markets, recognises this contribution.

It is essential that demand participation is properly enabled through market design which does not discriminate between different resources. Moreover, enabling business models, e.g. through aggregation, should be identified to ensure that demand seamlessly participates in energy and ancillary services markets.

The Workshop will, therefore, aim at identifying the most appropriate Regulatory Framework and Business Models which would enable demand participation in markets on nondiscriminatory terms with respect to other resources. The Workshop will consider the different ways in which demand can participate in the different markets and how regulation should take these differences into account.

Download the programme

Register here

This workshop is exclusively open to national regulators, representatives from public bodies and associate & major donors of the FSR Energy area.

This workshop is organised in collaboration with DG CLIMA of the European Commission, within the framework of the LIFE SIDE project. The project, started on 1 September 2016, aims to support policymakers with the implementation of the EU ETS. 

Go to the workshop web page 

The LIFE SIDE project is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Commission.

Save the date for the next 10th Florence Air Forum!

Following the usual format of the Florence School of Regulation, the 10^th Florence Air Forum aims at offering a platform for senior stakeholders from regulators, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, rail suppliers, authorities, associations and academics to take stock of topics relevant to mobility regulation and policies.

To learn more about our activities in the field of air regulation, please visit our dedicated webpage.

For more information or early registration, please contact FSR.Transport@eui.eu

BOOK PRESENTATION

Speaker: Peter Cramton 
Professor, University of Maryland
Part-time Professor Joint Chair RSCAS/Economics Department

Discussant: Xavier Labandeira, Director, FSR Climate

Book edited by Peter Cramton, David JC MacKay, Axel Ockenfels and Steven Stoft

Download the book in pdf from here

This event was live streamed. Watch the recording:

Overview

After twenty-five years of failure, climate negotiations continue to use a “pledge and review” approach: countries pledge (almost anything), subject to (unenforced) review. This approach ignores everything we know about human cooperation. In this book, leading economists describe an alternate model for climate agreements, drawing on the work of the late Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and others. They show that a ”common commitment” scheme is more effective than an ”individual commitment” scheme; the latter depends on altruism while the former involves reciprocity (”we will if you will”).

The contributors propose that global carbon pricing is the best candidate for a reciprocal common commitment in climate negotiations. Each country would commit to placing charges on carbon emissions sufficient to match an agreed global price formula. The contributors show that carbon pricing would facilitate negotiations and enforcement, improve efficiency and flexibility, and make other climate policies more effective. Additionally, they analyze the failings of the 2015 Paris climate conference.

Contributors
Richard N. Cooper, Peter Cramton, Ottmar Edenhofer, Christian Gollier, Éloi Laurent, David JC MacKay, William Nordhaus, Axel Ockenfels, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Steven Stoft, Jean Tirole, Martin L. Weitzman

About the Editors

• Peter Cramton is Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland.
• The late Sir David JC MacKay was Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and Chief Scientific Advisor to the United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.
• Axel Ockenfels is Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne.
• Steven Stoft is an economic consultant and author of Carbonomics.

Endorsements

”The threat of climate change can be managed only by global cooperation. Here a distinguished panel of experts applies fundamental principles of economics to show how such global efforts can be sustained. This is a great and important book.”
– Roger Myerson, Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago; 2007 Nobel laureate, Economics.

This year marks the ninth year of the collaboration between the FSR Energy Law and Policy Area and Bundesnetzagentur, the German regulatory office. The forum is designed to provide a platform for debate and exchange on the most relevant issues currently facing national regulatory authorities in the energy sector.

The ambitious legislative proposals of the Clean Energy Package, released in late 2016, signalled an overhaul of several of the current systems at both market and governance level, with considerable implications for national regulatory authorities (NRAs). Over the past several months, NRAs in the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) have released a series of white papers, partly in conjunction with the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), in response to these proposals. The aim of this forum is to interrogate the issues discussed in these white papers with the key stakeholders from a regulatory, legal, and economic perspective, to evaluate the challenges of the proposals and consider the next steps towards implementation.

The programme for the forum will be divided into three sessions, the first of which will concentrate on the implications of the Package on the energy market. The session will consider the unfolding new market rules, with a particular focus on the changing role of the distribution system operator (DSO), the unbundling of DSOs, and how to effectively unlock the demand side of the market and promote greater flexibility. For the second session, the discussion will then turn to the electricity market, examining the system operation, congestion management and the future role of capacity mechanisms. The session will also examine the shift toward regionalisation and the new governance structures and coordination necessary to implement this. The final session of the forum will turn to gas issues and evaluate the new security of supply package in terms of gas quality and infrastructure.

Read all of the white papers released by CEER and ACER, which will form a central part of the discussions at the forum.

Download the programme

SESSION I:

Hélène Gassin | CEER

Ruud Berndsen | EDSO for Smart Grids

Yannick Perez | Université Paris-Sud

Fernando Hernandez | CEER

Thomas Veyrenc | RTE

Ramona Tüttmann | BNetzA

SESSION II:

Nadia Horstmann | CEER

Clara Poletti | AEEGSI

Ivan Taleski | ENTSO-E

Stefan Moser | European Commission

SESSION III:

Boyko Nitzov | ACER

Nico Keyaerts | Florence School of Regulation/RSCAS/EUI 

Kris de Wit | Gas.be

Antonio Gómez Bruque | ENTSO-G

The purpose of this seminar is to focus on the current and forthcoming challenges facing the gas sector from both a legal and economic perspective.

The opening session will evaluate the new security of supply package – what’s in it and what it might involve – and assess the impact of the recent decision on intergovernmental agreements, before turning the debate to the markets.

In the second session, the gas regulatory framework will be examined and evaluated alongside the possible market failures of the gas market design, before looking at the future role (if there is one) of long-term gas contracts.

The final session will consider the role of antitrust, discussing the issue of flexibility and the role of the third party access (TPA) exemption regarding the use of the OPAL pipeline, and the possible wider repercussions of this in the ongoing debate surrounding transnational pipelines.

SESSION I: THE SECURITY OF SUPPLY PACKAGE

Alexia Trokoudi | Hellenic Petroleum SA

Jacek Liegmann | DG ENERGY, European Commission

 SESSION II: FUTURE CHALLENGES IN THE EU GAS MARKET

Dan Roberts | Frontier Economics

Emmanuel Grand | Compass Lexecon, FTI Consulting

Thomas Starlinger | Starlinger Mayer Attorneys at Law

SESSION III: THE ANTITRUST DIMENSION

Paul Lugard | Baker Botts LLP

Luciana Bellia | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Download the programme

The Athens Conference on European Energy Law is a joint initiative between the Energy Law and Policy Area of the Florence School of Regulation and the Hellenic Energy Regulation Institute, which aims to address the key issues facing Greece and the surrounding region. The conference will bring together academics, institutional representatives, and key market players to discuss;

1. The East Mediterranean region: the geopolitical implications and prospects of regional cooperation in the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
2. Transnational pipelines: how to play by EU rules?
3. The EU hydrocarbon market and the EU’s developing gas market design.
4. The EU’s electricity market design and the challenges of competition law and energy supply.

Download the Conference’s Summary (PDF)

Session I – East Mediterranean Region: Geopolitical Implications and the Prospects for Regional Cooperation in the Exploitation of Hydrocarbons

• Yannis Bassias
• Andreas Goldthau
• John A Apsouris
• Nicolò Sartori

Session II – Transnational Pipelines: How to Play by EU Rules?

• Antonis Metaxas
• Carlos Martínez Rico
• Simina Suciu

Session III – The EU Hydrocarbon Market and the EU’s Developing Gas Market Design

• Tom Maes
• Sofia Michelaki
• Christoph Riechmann
• Jochen Mohr

Session IV – The EU’s Electricity Market Design and the Challenges of Competition Law and Energy Supply

• Augustijn Van Haasteren
• Alberto Pototschnig
• Christof Schoser
• Marios Andrikopoulos & Alexia Trokoudi
• Ulrich Laumanns

Download the Draft Programme

For logistical information, please contact FSR.Conferences@EUI.eu

New Publication!

EU Energy Studies Volume XII: EU Energy Law and Policy, a South European Perspective – Meeting the Challenges of a Low Carbon Economy

More info here

Special offer for all participants in the Athens conference | Offer ends 15 October 2017

20% off the listed price of € 85,- and no shipping costs! You pay just € 68,- instead of € 100,-!*

* Discount code: Athens2017

Order online or via info@claeys-casteels.com

The Athens Conference on European Energy Law is kindly supported by: