FSR

In this episode, Kadri Simson, the Energy European Commissioner, discusses the EU's energy policy vision for the EU Green Deal with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the FSR Lights on Women initiative. As 75% of EU’s greenhouse gas emissions come from using or producing energy, energy policy will play a major role in delivering the climate targets. Member States have been working on their National Energy and Climate Plans to set the targets and the action plan for the next decade. As they have very different starting points, the European Commission will provide assistance and financial support to those that are still reliant on fossil fuels.

In Part I of the Net Zero Special Edition with Commissioner Simson she discusses key pillars of the European Green Deal: ensuring no one is left behind, innovation as a driving force, and the importance of R&D for energy storage solutions.

Commisioner Simson also touches on the role hydrogen will play, stating “in the upcoming years, definitively the most innovative and exciting solution is hydrogen”.

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Community energy is one of the current buzzwords in the public discourse over the electricity sector and the energy transition. Within a community, citizens can adopt new models for the production and consumption of energy. Among them, there are peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading and collective self-consumption.

In this podcast, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Josh Roberts (REScoop) discuss the concept of community energy and its relation with new energy models like P2P trading and prosumption. According to Mr Roberts, community energy should not be defined by a set of activities or functions, but it is rather an organisational concept that refers to a certain type of governance. In an energy community, citizens or users must have the control and possibly the ownership of the assets used by the community itself. Third parties may be involved, but they cannot have the lead. If someone accepts this definition, then it is clear that P2P trading and collective self-consumption can be of different types and do not represent a sufficient condition for the existence of a true energy community.

This kind of distinctions is not mere details relevant for academics only. On the contrary, it may have important implications for the current transposition of the European directives into national legislation and the future of community energy in the EU.

You may listen to another interview with Josh Roberts here:

https://soundcloud.com/fsregulation-energy-and-climate/the-role-of-local-energy-communities-in-europe-part-one-josh-roberts-rescoopeu

This podcast was recorded on 18th February 2020 in Florence during the second meeting (https://fsr.eui.eu/event/global-observatory-on-peer-to-peer-community-self-consumption-and-transactive-energy-models/) of the Global Observatory on Peer-to-Peer, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy Models (https://userstcp.org/annex/peer-to-peer-energy-trading/), organised by the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) in cooperation with the University College London (UCL) and the financial support by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.

End users have traditionally played a limited and rather passive role in the provision of electricity. However, the decentralisation and digitalisation of the energy sector today are changing the way electricity is produced, exchanged and consumed. New energy models, for instance peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, community self-consumption, and transactive energy, are emerging.

In this podcast, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Alexandra Schneiders (UCL) present the new Global Observatory on P2P, community self-consumption and transactive energy models. Established in September 2019, the Observatory is part of the Users-centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme (Users TCP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Eight countries are members of this Observatory, whose primary goal is to create a platform where all the stakeholders involved in the roll-out of these new energy models can exchange information and build new knowledge. The outcomes of the Observatory are then expected to support the policy-making efforts by governments around the world and contribute to the adoption of sensible public policies and regulation.

This podcast was recorded on 18th February 2020 in Florence during the second meeting (https://fsr.eui.eu/event/global-observatory-on-peer-to-peer-community-self-consumption-and-transactive-energy-models/) of the Global Observatory on Peer-to-Peer, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy Models (https://userstcp.org/annex/peer-to-peer-energy-trading/), organised by the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) in cooperation with the University College London (UCL) and with the financial support by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.

An explosion in medium and small electricity prosumers has been observed in the past decade across the EU, mainly driven by generous support measures and PV cost reduction. This era is now coming to an end with the phase-out of net metering schemes and feed-in tariffs. Therefore, new business models ensuring economic sustainability are essential.

In this podcast, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Donal Brown (University of Leeds) discuss how electricity prosumers can extract more value from their distributed generation assets. According to Dr Brown, prosumers might do at least three things: 1) increase their self-consumption rate behind the meter (e.g., via a micro-grid) or in front of it when allowed by regulation (e.g., Mieterstrom in Germany); 2) trade energy locally via peer-to-peer platforms or blockchain; 3) aggregate their loads and generation profiles to sell flexibility and other ancillary services. The development of digital technologies is making all these options potentially available, but regulation is not always conducive. When looking at the future of energy prosumers, the specific national context matters a lot.

If you want to know more about the PROSEU project and its result, please visit https://proseu.eu/

This podcast was recorded on 18th February 2020 in Florence during the second meeting (https://fsr.eui.eu/event/global-observatory-on-peer-to-peer-community-self-consumption-and-transactive-energy-models/) of the Global Observatory on Peer-to-Peer, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy Models (https://userstcp.org/annex/peer-to-peer-energy-trading/) organised by the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) in cooperation with the University College London (UCL) and the financial support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.

In this podcast, Professor Kim Talus from Tulane University discusses the latest controversies surrounding the OPAL gas pipeline, which links the Nordstream gas pipeline to Eastern Europe, and the implications of the recent judgment from the European Court of Justice for the interpretation and application of EU energy law. On 10 Sept 2019, the General Court of the ECJ annulled an earlier Commission decision to modify the exemption of the OPAL pipeline, by drawing on the principle of energy solidarity introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, as laid down in Article 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. In this podcast, Professor Talus gives a brief overview of the case, discusses the salient features of the judgment, particularly the meaning of the principle of solidarity, and reflects on the consequences of such an interpretation.

In this podcast, Dr Leonie Reins from Tilburg University discusses the role of the energy solidarity principle (as outlined in Article 194 TFEU) and the foreign direct investment (FDI) screening regulation in the development of a more integrated EU regulatory framework and a fully-fledged Energy Union. In particular, she examines how the General Court’s recent interpretation of the energy solidarity principle as seen in the OPAL case and the FDI screening will impact the energy sector.

In this podcast, Elina Hautakangas and Tatu Pahkala, from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in Finland, discuss the changing role of distribution system operators (DSOs) in the EU Clean Energy Package and reflect upon the implications of this shift for the EU internal electricity market and, specifically, Finland’s energy sector.

In this podcast, Dr Seita Romppanen, from the University of Eastern Finland, discusses the key aspects of two interrelated regulatory instruments of the EU climate and energy policy framework for 2030 under the Clean Energy Package: the Effort Sharing Regulation and the so-called LULUCF Regulation on land use, land-use change and forestry. Dr Romppanean introduces the overarching regulatory framework for the two regulations and analyses the main provisions of the Effort Sharing Regulation and the LULUCF Regulation before, finally, discussing these regulations in the context of EU climate and energy law and highlighting the next steps of development in this dynamic field of EU law.

According to the IEA, an average of 1.7% of total gas production is leaked into the atmosphere before it reaches the consumers. The phenomenon constitutes both a serious climate threat and an economic loss.

In 2016, US EPA adopted new rules aimed at reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. The rules include standards for periodic monitoring of possible leakage. In this podcast, Maria Olczak (FSR) and Robert L. Kleinberg, PhD (Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University) discuss the consequences of the revision of the 2016 Obama-era methane regulations initiated by President Trump.

Thanks to this podcast, you will learn:

• what is the current state of the US regulations targeting methane leaks

• how the industry responded to the rollback of 2016 regulations

• why restoring 2016 Obama administration rules would be a mistake

• what are the Methane Guiding Principles and OGCI

• how to enable the use of new and emerging technologies to reduce methane leaks

• the main takeaways of the US experience for the EU policy-makers

This podcast was recorded on 10th January 2020 at the Workshop on Methane Emissions Reduction organised by the European Commission in Berlin.

Brussels, Professor Jonathan Stern, distinguished Research Fellow (Natural Gas Research Programme), from Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, was a moderator of a session “Energy transition: how can LNG contribute?”. In this podcast, Professor Stern discusses LNG as an important asset to reach 2050 decarbonisation targets, as well as potential problems regarding emissions. He points out that in the next few years serious work will have to be devoted to certification of emissions, as to provide a more accurate tracking. According to Professor Stern is emphasising that decarbonisation of LNG and emission reduction, in the next two decades, will depend on CCS, bio-LNG and potentially from other sources.