Fsr Energy & Climate

In this episode, Tara Connolly, EU Climate and Energy Policy Director at Greenpeace, reflects on the real impact of energy transition on the environment, in a candid conversation with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR. While there is a big drive today in Europe to switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources, is all the emphasis on power generation enough to fight climate change? According to Tara Connolly, “decarbonizing the power sector is absolutely key”, but there needs to be more focus on other sectors, like transportation and heating and cooling. Tara Connolly also notes that, for the most part, “the technologies are there, it’s about putting in place policies that will support and accelerate their deployment”. However, a world with more renewables will also probably be a world with mass deployment of lithium ion batteries and increased mining of cobalt, which raises other environmental issues. For Tara Connolly, Europe should start by making sure that “the standar

What impact will the energy transition have on electricity prices for consumer? Monika de Volder, Senior Economic Officer at BEUC – The European Consumers Organisation, discusses with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the FSR Lights on Women initiative, the expected impact of increased renewables and consumer-oriented services in the retail electricity prices. Monika de Volder starts by noting that, against public expectations, electricity prices for households have been increasing over the last ten years – “We see more and more liberalization, which we would expect to result in more competition and better services and lower prices for consumers. Yet we don’t see that in every country”. In fact, renewables are very often blamed for increasing electricity prices. However, as Monika de Volder refers, renewables are the best alternative to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. In the future, the introduction of new demand response services might allow consumers to capture the positive effect of the lower marginal c

Why do TSOs and DSOs need to cooperate more than in the past? Viviana Vitto, Head of Market Studies and Strategic Analysis at Enel Global Infrastructure and Networks, joins Joana Freitas, Ambassador of the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, to discuss how the energy transition is shaping the need and configuration of TSO/DSO coordination. In Viviana’s perspective, decentralized generation, electrification and electric vehicles are growing at a fast pace and, given this new context, “TSOs and DSOs have just not the need but the responsibility to cooperate in order to rethink the energy system”. In fact, several European grid operators have been participating in TSO/DSO coordination pilots, as CoordiNet and SmartNet. The Clean Energy Package also paves the way to a closer cooperation between TSOs and DSOs. One of the measures determined by this package is the creation of a DSO entity, which, in Viviana’s view, “will play an important role to implement this cooperation and identifying the needs of the futur

Will Europe be able to achieve 100% renewables by 2050? Albert Cheung, Head of Global Analysis at Bloomberg NEF, talks to Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, about the key obstacles and challenges of an energy system with high penetration of renewables. According to Albert Cheung, although solar and wind are becoming the cheapest forms of power generation, “there are a lot of obstacles and it's a really long road to get to those sorts of high penetrations”. As 100% renewables also mean a zero-carbon power system, it will require a “huge collaborative effort between government, energy companies and the investment community”. Despite the obstacles, several European countries are already setting ambitious targets for the next decade – by 2030, Austria expects to achieve 100% of renewables in electricity consumption while UK will be coal free by 2025. Albert Cheung also notes that this change of paradigm will require “massive amounts of flexibility” as an “energy system that h

The Head of the Innovation Area at the FSR, M. Vazquez discusses the potential of peer-to-peer contracts and decentralised technologies in the energy sector with Rolf Riemenschneider (European Commission, DG Connect). The interview has been conducted in the context of the Workshop: Digital Energy Marketplaces, held on 17 September in Florence. More info here: https://fsr.eui.eu/event/dlt-smart-contracts-digitalisation-energy/

The Florence School of Regulation invited Jorge Moreno, Partner at inodú, to discuss inodú’s latest publication, which reviews Chile’s decarbonisation efforts. In the podcast, Pradyumna Bhagwat (Research Fellow, FSR) and Mr Moreno discuss decarbonisation measures undertaken by the Chilean Government, their impact and recommendations for rapid decarbonisation in the future. Chile has committed to reducing its CO2 emission per GDP unit to 30% below the 2007 levels by 2030 as ratified under the Paris agreement. In view of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, several steps have been taken by the Chilean Government. Working groups were established to develop a conversion and retirement schedule for existing coal generation facilities. An example of the impact is the June 2019 agreement between generation companies and the government to retire eight coal units (1047 MW) over 5 years. Some of the key recommendations presented in their article while closing coal plants are: 1) Provide certainty on new environmental

Aggregators in the Clean Energy Package: Opportunities and Difficulties as Enablers for Decentralised Actors In this podcast, Dr. Maximilian Wimmer, senior researcher at the Foundation for Environmental Energy law (Stiftung Umweltenergierecht), analyses aggregators’ opportunities and difficulties as enablers for decentralised actors in the future energy market with a view on the relevant legal framework found in the “Clean Energy for All Europeans Package”. In the near future, aggregators are likely to play an important role as enablers for decentralised market actors like consumers, prosumers, active customers and energy communities. With the help of aggregation, it will be possible to reduce prices on control reserves and wholesale markets by combining several different units and optimising their demand and supply behaviours. For consumers and prosumers participating in aggregation services, it will have the potential to lower balancing costs and decrease the energy bill. Further, the aggregator can take

Wind power industry has been a great success in Brazil, the installed capacity of wind power has increased from less than 1 GW in 2010 to more than 15 GW in 2019 in more than 600 wind farms, accounting for more than 9% of the Brazilian electricity matrix, with an 80% nationalized production chain. Today, wind Energy is the second largest source of electric energy in Brazil. In this podcast we talk with Elbia Gannoum, who as ABEEólica´s CEO has been active in strengthening the sustainable growth of wind energy in Brazil. Elbia Gannoum has been the CEO of ABEEÓLICA, the Brazilian Wind Energy Associatio, since September 2011. She was a Member of the Board of CCEE, the Electrical Energy Chamber of Commerce from June 2006 to April 2011. She was a Chief Economist to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (2003-2006, Coordinator of the Political Institute of the Ministry of Finance (2002-2003), Advisor of Economic Affairs to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (2001), Advisor to ANEEL (2001-2001), and Professor of the Feder

Francesco Ferioli (European Commission, DG Energy) in an interview with Ilaria Conti (FSR) focuses on the question how Power-to-Gas technology could impact the future supply and demand equilibrium in the electricity sector. Mr Ferioli explains that due to its flexibility potential Power-to-Gas could help hedge the risks for renewable electricity producers in a more efficient way than Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and batteries. The podcast recorded on the margins of training “Power to the molecules (from technology to market uptake)” on 11 and 12 July 2019 in Florence. Link to training page: https://fsr.eui.eu/training/energy/power-to-the-molecules-from-technology-to-market-uptake/

On the margins of the training “Power to the molecules (from technology to market uptake)” on 11 and 12 July 2019, Ilaria Conti (Head of FSR Gas) interviews Martina Conton (EU Policy manager at The Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association Europe). Within the framework of the recently published EU long-term strategy, NGVA expects the hydrogen to play a more and more important role in the transport sector, mainly as blended with methane. However, since Power-to-Gas is perceived as not fully mature technology, the feasibility, cost and the sustainability of hydrogen are still to be assessed. Link to training page: https://fsr.eui.eu/training/energy/power-to-the-molecules-from-technology-to-market-uptake/

The Andean Electric Interconnexion System Initiative (SINEA by its acronym in Spanish) was created in 2011 by Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia (as an observer country) with the goal of advancing the integration of their electric systems. SINEA´s coordination rotates annually in July, this year Chile has the task of moving the path of electricity integration forward in the region. According to Paula Estevez, Energy Integration is a priority for Chile, as “Interconnected systems are more robust, resilient, and provide greater security in energy emergencies, and also they enable a higher penetration of variable renewable energies as solar and wind because they give greater flexibility to the systems”. Listen to the podcast in Spanish here: http://bit.ly/2LnyWuI Subscribe for updates and opportunities from Lights on Women! http://bit.ly/2Sk4diT

We sat down for a conversation with FSR Area Directors Jean-Michel Glachant and Matthias Finger in the framework on the 8th Conference on the Regulation of Infrastructures, the School’s annual event which brings together all FSR Areas, namely Energy & Climate, Transport, Telecoms & Media, and Water. This two-day conference took place on 20-21 June 2019, and gathered academics and academically minded practitioners for interactive thematic sessions aimed at identifying the key challenges of digitalisation for traditional network industries; discovering various regulatory approaches to platforms and determining benefit scenarios for consumers and to the platforms themselves. This podcast zooms into the implications for energy and transport.

Why testing five different TSO-DSO coordination schemes? In the context of the Horizon2020 SmartNet Project Final Workshop in Arona, the FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant interviews Helena Gerard (Vito) on the five coordination schemes analysed by the project to learn more about the SmartNet research and its final outcomes. The SmartNet project aimed to provide optimised instruments and modalities to improve the coordination between the grid operators at national and local level (respectively the TSOs and DSOs) and the exchange of information for monitoring and for the acquisition of ancillary services (reserve and balancing, voltage balancing control, congestion management) from subjects located in the distribution segment (flexible load and distributed generation). For more information, please visit: http://smartnet-project.eu/

What is new about the coordination of TSO and DSO? In the context of the Horizon2020 SmartNet Project Final Workshop in Arona, the FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant interviews Norela Costantinescu (ENTSOE) on the theme of TSO-DSO coordination to better understand the implications of the research results achieved by the SmartNet Project and the future steps that will be taken by the INTERRFACE project. The SmartNet project aimed to provide optimised instruments and modalities to improve the coordination between the grid operators at national and local level (respectively the TSOs and DSOs) and the exchange of information for monitoring and for the acquisition of ancillary services (reserve and balancing, voltage balancing control, congestion management) from subjects located in the distribution segment (flexible load and distributed generation). For more information, please visit: http://smartnet-project.eu/

Please note that wind noise appears in the beginning of the podcast. 'In this podcast Daniel Schmerler, Chairman of the Peruvian Supervising and Regulatory Agency for Energy and Mining Investment, reflects on the status of the energy transition in Peru. Daniel tackles the topics of access to the electricity grid, share of variable renewables in electricity, market integration in South America and the development of new interconnectors. He also discusses the need for a general debate on energy as well as the adoption of indicative planning processes in the Peruvian energy sector.'

Colombia continues reforming its electric sector to improve and expand service, reduce vulnerability to climate change and diversify the energy matrix by incorporating more non-conventional renewable sources (including solar, wind and biogas). According to Alexandra Planas - Senior Energy Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank - "the use of Non-conventional sources of renewable energy has been growing steadily in the last decade, but still only represents one percent of the total energy matrix in Colombia", therefore the reforms are necessary to secure the energy transition in the country and to increase the share of Non-conventional energy to 15-18% by 2031. This podcast was created as a part of the FSR’s Lights on Women initiative in joint partnership with Inter-American Development Bank under the Lights on Women LAC Edition series. Learn more about the Lights on Women LAC Edition here: https://medium.com/lights-on-women/lights-on-women-the-latin-american-and-caribbean-edition-2a0211b1c456 Subsc

At the FSR Global Forum (25-28 March) Piero Carlo dos Reis (FSR), interviewed Mr. Georgios Pantoulis, Deputy Head of Unit “Sustainable Energy, Climate Change” of European Commission DG DEVCO. After a roundtable on Multilateral institutional initiatives with representatives of European Commission DGs, IRENA and UNECA, Piero and Mr. Pantoulis discuss the EU Commission’s goals and activities regarding international energy cooperation. Given the EU 2030 Paris agreement agenda, the European Commission is active in supporting all partner countries through incentives enabling sustainable, affordable, reliable and modern energy services. In particular, this discussion focuses on (1) ‘inclusive development’, ensuring that poor and vulnerable citizens benefit from these interventions, and (2) by being aware of being the main actors of these new developments, society will support the cooperation and further promote sustainability.

On the margins of the 11th edition of the Specialised Training on the Regulation of Gas Markets, Maria Olczak (FSR) and Anne-Sophie Corbeau (Head of Gas Analysis at BP) discuss the 2019 edition of BP Energy Outlook. During the interview, Anne-Sophie presents the key findings of the BP Energy Outlook, specifies the key factors that may influence the forecasted increase in global LNG trade, and concludes with some remarks on the role of gas in the EU energy mix in 2040 perspective.

At the FSR Global Forum (25-28 March) Tim Schittekatte, researcher at the Florence School of Regulation, interviewed Dr Anoop Singh who leads the Centre for Energy Regulation (CER) within IIT Kanpur, India. In this podcast, firstly, it is questioned whether national reforms (i.e. liberalization) is a necessary precondition to allow for regional integration of electricity markets. Dr Singh argues that we do not have to wait for national reforms; these reforms might take too long. A better option is to start with bilateral agreements, which will quickly show benefits. These experiences will quickly illicit interest from other stakeholders which can join the project later. Secondly, it is mentioned that only a minimum set of requirements need to be met to allow for such bilateral electricity trade agreements. National markets may be gradually reformed to increase the benefits of electricity market integration. Finally, Dr Singh explains that currently, India is successfully trading electricity with Nepal, Bhut

Interested in learning more about the Clean Energy Package? Check out our online course: http://bit.ly/CEP_online_course The second day of FSR Global Forum coincided with the day when the new Electricity market Regulation and Electricity market Directive as well as of the Regulations on Risk Preparedness and on ACER were adopted by the European Parliament. This marks the finalisation of the Clean Energy Package negotiations. Dr. Annegret Groebel shares with us her insights on the CEP role in enhancing the functioning of the internal electricity market and reaching climate goals, specifically on the role of regional coordination centres (RCCs); the establishment of the EU DSO entity and its tasks; the updated adoption process for network codes and guidelines.