Exploring energy regulation in Africa: political Economy, emerging technologies, and regional collaboration

This FRS Talks aims to delve into the intricate political economy governing energy regulation across Africa, as presented in the book ‘Energy Regulation in Africa’ by Dr. Ishmael Ackah and Dr. Charly Gatete. The discussion will cover the diverse regulatory frameworks, emerging technologies, climate change issues, regional energy markets, and the role of regulators in promoting gender mainstreaming in the energy sector.

Speakers

Dr. Ishmael Ackah | Executive Secretary of Ghana’s Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC)

Dr. Charly Gatete | Applied Researcher at the African School of Regulation (ASR),

Invited Discussant
Louise Mathu | Consultant, ASR

Co-Hosts

Carol Awuor Ofafa | Research Associate, ASR – African School of Regulation
Prof. Lucila Almeida | Part-time Professor, EUI/RSCAS/FSR
Swetha Ravi Kumar | Executive Director, FSR Global

The event is co-hosted by Carol Ofafa, a Research Associate at the African School of Regulation (ASR), Prof. Lucila de Almeida, a Part-time Professor at EUI/RSCAS/FSR and Swetha Ravi Kumar the Executive Director of FSR Global based in India. Their roles involve facilitating the discussion, moderating the session, and ensuring the smooth progression of the event. Through their expertise and affiliations with leading academic institutions, they contribute to the intellectual depth and diversity of perspectives within the dialogue.

In this FRS Talk, Dr. Nuno Antunes joins us to present some results of the research & development conducted by the Hydrogen Task Force of AIEN, Association of International Energy Negotiators, which ultimately has the purpose of developing model contracts within the hydrogen realm, including the Hydrogen Sales and Purchase Agreement (H2 SPA).

Background

Many projects of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen are currently in the design or pre-FEED stage. The issue of hydrogen offtaking (and offtakers) has proven to be a critical concern. Sale and purchase agreements for hydrogen and its derivatives have thus moved into the spotlight, and have become one of the key contracting instruments for the emerging hydrogen market. The AIEN, known for its track record in developing model agreements for the oil and gas sector, initiated a “Hydrogen Taskforce” in 2022 to explore contract standardization in the hydrogen field. This webinar will provide an overview of some of the task force’s efforts, forthcoming steps, and specific challenges that have been faced.

The FSR Talks series monthly invites policy-makers and academics to talk about relevant topics related to energy and climate regulation addressed to a global audience. It is co-hosted by Prof. Lucila de Almeida representing the European University Institute/Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies/Florence School of Regulation ((EUI/RSCAS/FSR), Carol Awuor from the African School of Regulation (ASR), and Swetha Ravi Kumar from FSR Global based in India.

Speaker
Dr. Nuno Antunes | Lead of the AIEN Hydrogen Taskforce, Invited Professor at Universidade Católica de Portugal, and Partner at Miranda & Associados, Portugal.

Invited Discussant
James Kneebone (FSR)

Co-Hosts
Prof. Lucila Almeida | Part-time Professor, EUI/RSCAS/FSR
Carol Awuor Ofafa | Research Associate, ASR – African School of Regulation
Swetha Ravi Kumar | Executive Director, FSR Global

The frequency of natural disasters due to climate change is increasing, and institutions across different geographic areas are not equally ready to cope with such events. In fact, the lack of adequate institutional responses is likely to exacerbate the consequences of these events. Making the EU and developing countries better able to cope with the devastating consequences of climate change requires an articulated policy mix around carbon price, and resilient and reactive institutions and processes. Many economical, political and social lessons can be drawn from the recent health and war crises but also natural disasters.

This panel will explore feasible manners to enhance resiliency to climate change pursuing the European Green Deal agenda, taking in consideration the climate mitigation policies. It will also address how to better prepare agriculture, biodiversity, the health system and our economies in general to cope with climate change and how to protect the most vulnerable populations in developing countries and in Europe.

Moderators:

• Simone Borghesi,  Director of the Florence School of Regulation – Climate, EUI
• Fabrizia Mealli, Professor of EconometricsEuropean University Institute, EU

Panellists:

• Hans-Martin Füssel, Climate Change Adaptation Expert, European Environment Agency (EEA)
• Shonali Pachauri, Research group leader, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Massamba Thioye, Project Executive UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, UN Climate Change Secretariat
• Mira Manini Tiwari, Research Associate, RSCAS, EUI

FSR Climate, together with the Policy Outreach Committee of EAERE (European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists), organises this session to promote a more integrated dialogue between academia and policy world, providing advice and support to EU policy makers and institutions in designing policy interventions.

The event is organised under the framework of the Horizon Europe project SPES and will take place during the EUI State of the Union 2024. SPES is funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101094551.

Participation in this panel is via invitation only. Find out more about the full programme of the State of the Union here.

The upcoming FSR Talks session will explore the role of the EU in energy transition pathways in the Global South.

Speakers will discuss the EU’s strategic initiatives in this regard, the implementation pathways and impacts they are intended to have, and the importance of gender aspects in energy transition. The session will also examine the interactions between the global north and south and how efforts can be accelerated to realize a shared energy transition vision.

Background

The global energy landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the need to address climate change and achieve sustainable development goals. As countries strive to decarbonize their economies and transition towards renewable energy sources, the role of the European Union (EU) in shaping energy transition pathways in the Global South has become increasingly significant.

The EU has been at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change and promote renewable energy. Through its ambitious policies and initiatives, such as the European Green Deal, Cross Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), etc the EU has set clear targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the share of renewable energy in its energy mix. These efforts have not only transformed the EU’s own energy sector but have also had a significant impact on global energy markets and policies.

In the Global South, countries are faced with the dual challenge of meeting growing energy demand while also transitioning to a more sustainable energy system. The EU, with its experience and expertise in energy transition, can play a crucial role in supporting these countries in their efforts. This includes providing technical assistance, sharing best practices, and facilitating access to finance and technology.

The FSR Talks series monthly invites policy-makers and academics to talk about relevant topics related to energy and climate regulation addressed to a global audience. It is co-hosted by Prof. Lucila de Almeida representing the European University Institute/Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies/Florence School of Regulation ((EUI/RSCAS/FSR), Carol Awuor from the African School of Regulation (ASR), and Swetha Ravi Kumar from FSR Global based in India.

Speakers

Delphine Brissonneau | Senior Program Manager at the EU Delegation in India

Prof. Ummu Salma Bava | Jawaharlal Nehru University

Invited Discussant

Dr. Parul Bakshi | Research Fellow, FSR Global

Co-Hosts

Swetha Ravi Kumar | Executive Director, FSR Global

Prof. Lucila Almeida | Part-time Professor, EUI/RSCAS/FSR

Carol Awuor Ofafa | Research Associate, ASR – African School of Regulation

In this episode of FSR Talks, Daniel Trnka joins us to discuss the recent OECD Public Governance Policy Paper entitled  ‘Better regulation for the green transition’.

This policy paper discusses how governments can use better regulation instruments (good regulatory practices, risk-based and agile approaches, regulatory delivery, international regulatory cooperation, economic regulators, and behavioural insights) to design, implement and evaluate efficient and effective regulations for the environment.

Together with its authors, we will explore the challenges governments face and present good practices for environmental and other regulations to ensure that all policy instruments coherently pursue environmental goals.

The new edition of the FSR Talks series aims to monthly invite policy-makers and academics to talk about relevant topics addressed to a global audience related to energy and climate regulation.

Host

Lucila de Almeida, FSR
Carol Awuor, African School of Regulation
Swetha Ravi Kumar, FSR Global based in India

Speaker

Daniel Trnka, Deputy Head of Division of the Regulatory Policy Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Invited discussant

Jorge Vasconcelos, FSR

Watch the recording:

The next episode of the FSR Talks series hosted by Jean-Michel Glachant will welcome Nathalie Tocci, Director of Instituto Affari Internazionali to present her book ‘A Green and Global Europe’ (Polity Press, 2022).

Together with her, we will address the following questions:

• Can the EU accelerate its energy transition and secure its energy supplies, while increasing the cohesion of its Member States instead of fueling their disunion and rivalry?
• Can the EU pursue its global trajectory without worrying its neighbors or losing the benevolence of the B(R)ICs?

Ms. Tocci will be joined by two discussants, bringing European and non-European perspectives:

Anne Houtman, member of the Royal Academy of Belgium; former Dep. Head of Cabinet of EU Commission Presidency, former EU Ambassador in France.

Surya Sethi, advisor at FSR Global; former Principal Adviser & Core Climate Negotiator of the Government of India, former Chief Investment Officer at International Finance Corporation at World Bank.

A double win or a double pain for Europe? Time to double-check!

This event will be live-streamed.

A proposal for electricity market design reform (COM(2023) 148 , COM(2023) 147) has been issued by European Commission on the 14^th of March and the FSR summarised it on the day after.

Two months later, this online event will go deeper and review its content to understand what is actually missing and why, for the EU to secure a safe sailing to Net Zero in the present hard times of a European energy crisis and a world geo-economic shake-up. This is what we call a “Check-in before boarding”.

It is true that the current proposal is not adopted yet, as both the Council and the Parliament will add, subtract, underline, or polish. It is also true that this proposal is only a “patch”, added to the existing EU market frame, and not a complete overhaul still to come in 2035-2050. However, it is time to expand our horizons and start thinking about the decarbonisation and electrification times we will face in roughly a decade. Hence the need for a “check-in before boarding”.

Host:

Jean-Michel Glachant, Florence School of Regulation, IAEE

Speakers:

• Frédéric Gonand, Paris-Dauphine
• Michael Pollitt, Cambridge University Business School,
• Jorge Vasconcelos, Newes
• Swetha Ravi Kumar, FSR Global

A decade ago, you knew that electricity distribution was changing because of new words popping up, such as ‘smart grids’ and ‘smart meters’. We invite you to forget what you knew, a few changes, and acknowledge what you do not know yet: several revolutions.

Do you remember the telecom industry disappearing under the push of the Internet ecosystem? You are getting closer to the coming disruption. In China, they already use the wording “Electricity Internet” meaning a digital revolution, a decentralization revolution, in a multi-layer electricity system with prosumers, peer-to-peer, flexsumers, aggregators, and local markets.

How are distribution grids really transforming, in technologies, usages, roles, tools, business models, and regulations? What has already come true? What is still only a dream? Where are the pioneers, the followers, the reactionaries?

We will discuss all that from the book “Electricity Networks in the Decentralization Era. Rethinking Economics & Regulation” (Palgrave, 2022), by R. Poudineh, C. Brandstätt, F. Billimoria.

The Host of the series, Jean-Michel Glachant loved that book and made an enthusiastic review of it for the journal “Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy”(EEEP). The authors, Christine Brandstätt and Fahrad Billimoria will join the event to share the key messages of their book.

The discussion will follow with Tim Schittekatte, an expert in distribution economics and regulation, formerly FSR and today working at MIT; and Jean-Michel Glachant, who pictures himself as “an old horse having seen the take-off of centralized wholesale electricity trade in the past century, and now amazed that electricity decentralized affairs are taking off today in front of my eyes”.

In this episode of the FSR Talks series, we will look at energy transition and the global south.

McKinsey estimates an investment requirement of $275 trillion between 2021-2050. Stanford places the broader cost of-addressing climate change at $400 trillion over the same 30-year period.  These outlays are manageable, given the 2022 Global GDP of $104 trillion and its history of doubling every 25 years post-1970.

The issue, however, is that the bottom half of the World, with a combined share of about 10% of the Global GNI and GDP, is required to carry a disproportionate burden of the cost of transition relative to their financial and technical capacity and responsibility.

Given high debt burdens, relatively higher cost of capital, limited domestic surpluses, and multiple demands on these limited resources; the bottom half of the world will be unable to deliver the proposed energy transition. 

Funds spent annually on fossil fuels by the world’s bottom half offer a possible solution for meeting the funding shortfall.  However, this solution requires unprecedented levels of bridge finance, with concessional IDA type terms, under innovative funding structures, wherein private capital from global capital markets will take out the bridge finance after 8-10 years.

The question is: will the rich half of the world, which currently provides limited levels of IDA funding, bite the bullet?

Host: Jean-Michel Glachant

Speaker: Surya Sethi, FSR Global Advisor

Discussants:

Miguel Vazquez, FSR Advisor

Kavita Rao, Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi

Find more:

Mc Kinsey report: The net-zero transition What it would cost, what it could bring 

Faced with rapid urbanisation, growing population and increased electricity demand, African countries must radically transform their energy systems to address challenges faced by utilities. Power utilities in Africa are in a vicious cycle of financial deficit and exhibit poor technical performance, with the consequence of an insufficient investment in electricity supply infrastructure, poor system reliability and low access rates.

What are the priority areas for Africa in preparation to meet the climate and development goals? How can mini-grids and regional power pools help address Africa’s energy access needs and what is the role of natural gas in Africa’s energy mix?

FSR faculty members Jean-Michel Glachant, Christine Juta and Elias Zigah will discuss these issues with Ignacio Pérez Arriaga.

Host

Jean-Michel Glachant  

Guest Speaker 

Ignacio Pérez Arriaga| Interim Director African School of Regulation 

Discussants

Christine Juta| FSR 

Elias Zigah| African School of Regulation 

Agenda

Opening remarks and introduction

Speaker: Ignacio Pérez Arriaga

Discussion with Christine Juta and Elias Zigah

Q&A with the audience