The electricity sector is facing a new wave of changes supported by new business models, two of which are key to our understanding of the ongoing transformations. The first model secures ex-ante investments into fixed cost generation assets with guaranteed long-term revenue streams. It is typical of investments into green generation, be they wind or solar, onshore or offshore, utility-scale or individual prosumer, within regulated schemes or private bilateral contracting. The second model is built with the light asset approach typical of the digitalisation era. It favours particular product characteristics for targeted customers and has many variants: aggregators as new intermediaries; digital platforms bypassing intermediaries; direct peer-to-peer exchange such as blockchain; fleets of consumption, generation and storage devices managed ‘behind the meter’, such as mini-grids or off-grid. Between the two, transmission and distribution grids will have to reinvent, as much as regulatory frames will permit, to create efficient loops of deeper interaction with the active users of the grids in operation and investments.
Following the EMD reform of 2024, the Commission is tasked to publish a report on the ‘possibilities of streamlining and simplifying the process of applying for a capacity mechanism’ by [...]
Capacity mechanisms are gaining momentum in Europe, and the latest EU electricity market reform further reinforces their role. The negative externalities exerted by these national mechanisms in interconnected zones might, [...]
The European Commission has confirmed plans to enshrine a 90% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target by 2040 into law, in line with the European Climate Law’s goal of achieving climate [...]
With 2023 being the hottest year documented and global emissions remaining at record-high levels, we are reminded about the importance of translating climate commitments into effective policies – across both [...]
This report summarises the insights collected during the workshop on “The role of carbon markets in reaching carbon neutrality”, which took place in June 2024. This workshop was part of [...]
The report prepared by Mr Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank and former Prime Minister of Italy, to the European Commission entitled “EU competitiveness: Looking ahead” (“the Draghi [...]
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