FSR

The evolution of the structure of electricity systems and the new possibilities offered by digital technologies are leading to an evolution of electricity market designs around the world. In Italy, the need for new providers of flexibility and the increasing amount of distributed energy resources (DER) have prompted a reform of the market for ancillary services and its opening to virtually aggregated units of generation and consumption.

In this podcast, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Jan Marc Schwidtal (Università di Padova) address the results of the recent auctions that took place in Italy and that awarded the right to mixed virtually aggregated units (UVAM) to offer their capacity into the Italian market for ancillary services. Jan Marc highlights the positive result of the auction, with around one GW of capacity awarded to 26 companies. However, he also notices that for the time being, most of the UVAM are made of a relatively few large-scale distributed generation units and industrial loads. Retail-size units like households or small commercial customers are still not involved, probably due to the relatively high cost of installing the required ICT infrastructure that is not justified by the prices at which flexibility is remunerated.

This podcast was recorded on 26th November 2019 in Florence at the 2nd Energy Innovation Bootcamp, organised by Energy Innovation Area of the Florence School of Regulation (FSR), in association with the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI).

In this podcast, Dr Ruven Fleming from the University of Groningen discusses electricity storage in EU law specifically from the point of view of the Clean Energy Package. He provides a brief introduction to what electricity storage is and why it is needed. He then focuses on how the new provisions of the Clean Energy Package address electricity storage and he discusses the practical implications of these new rules to four groups of market participants: energy consumers, energy producers, network system operators and, finally, private companies.

At the 2nd edition of the FSR Innovation Bootcamp, Bjarne Steffen, senior researcher at ETH Zürich and visiting researcher at MIT, gave a presentation around his work on renewable energy financing. In this podcast, Bjarne discusses his work around the cost of capital of investments in renewables with Tim Schittekatte, researcher at the FSR. Bjarne and his co-authors found that between 2005 and 2017, the cost of capital for wind and solar reduced significantly in Germany and explains how three types of drivers contributed to this decline. Learnings around these drivers can aid to foster investment conditions for new technologies in a global context and can help to understand how the levelised cost of electricity can be impacted by changes in general interest rates. Finally, Bjarne's findings are also important to inform policymakers when wanting to revise the renewable support schemes of which the design can strongly influence the cost of capital. Introducing support schemes that give more market signals can help to better integrate renewables but can come at an expense in terms of cost of capital.

Relevant work from Bjarne Steffen:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-018-0277-y

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0375-2

Prof. Poul Erik Morthorst of the Danish Technical University (DTU)’s ideas are clear: carbon pricing cannot be the excuse to delay or avoid investments in technology supporting renewable energy development.

On the contrary, taking immediate action could lead to short-term benefits: “We should invest in RES now, and have an immediate effect on CO2 reduction” urges Professor Morthorst. [Listen to the full podcast, recorded in the context of the FutureGas annual meeting in Vaerloese, Denmark].

Climate change is likely to modify significantly patterns of capital investments and constitutes both a risk and an opportunity for investors and financial institutions. A framework aligning the decisions of financial institutions with long-term climate goals is taking shape, and carbon intensive investments will likely face an increasing risk of being stranded. Within this framework, banks must be transparent and clear about how their products and services create value for their customers, clients, investors, as well as the environment. The Principles for Responsible Banking help banks to align their business strategy with society’s goals through ESG – Environmental Social and Governance – investments. The Principles provide the framework for a sustainable banking system, and help the industry demonstrate how it makes a positive contribution to society. They are accelerating the banking industry’s contribution to achieving society’s goals as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. The Principles were publicly launched and signed by 130 banks from 49 countries, representing more than USD47 trillion in assets, on September 22 on the eve of the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019. Today’s seminar aims to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the Principles, their alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement objectives, and to discuss their potential impact on the transition to a low-carbon economy.

On 28 March 2019, the European Court of Justice annulled the Commission’s decision that the German law on renewable energy (EEG 2012) involved State aid. This annulment, in turn, has cast similar support schemes previously deemed State aid in a contentious light. What was the Court’s reasoning, and what does this ruling mean for the development of case law in State aid? In this podcast, Dr Max Klasse of Blomstein discusses the background to the case and what led to this decision before considering the implications of the judgment, and how it may reframe the criteria that constitutes State aid.

In this interview, Valerie Reif (FSR Energy) talks to Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, about the newest developments in solar. We look at the uptake of solar around the world, touch upon technological developments and discuss the implications of the Clean Energy Package for the evolvement of solar and other renewables in Europe. Check out SolarPower Europe's Global Market Outlook report here : solarpowereurope.org/global-market-outlook-2019-2023/

Never miss a new episode! Subscribe to our channel on Soundcloud and iTunes and sign up for our newsletter: bit.ly/2Sk4diT

Connect with us on twitter @FSR_energy

What do electricity consumers really want? In this episode, Annette Jantzen, Secretary General at the National Energy Ombudsmen Network, shares her thoughts with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, on the main needs and concerns of electricity consumers, in the changing context of the energy transition. According to Annette Jantzen, one of the key issues arising from the energy transition is the high effort that the most vulnerable consumers have to make – “The households which are making the biggest effort to fund the energy transition today are the poorest ones”. At European level, the Clean Energy Package (CEP) is the first legislative package that mentions citizens in its name – Clean Energy for all Europeans. Annette Jantzen describes the CEP as very positive when it comes to consumer rights and protections, however, also notes that there is still a long way to go in terms of putting in place all the rights established in the document. “[The lack of strong legal provisions] could create issues and maybe a loss of trust, or hinder people from actually participating in the market”, she adds. Annette Jantzen also comments on the resistance to smart meters in some European countries – “People don’t really see why they should have a smart meter. They would be less worried once they see they would get benefit out of it”. In the end of the day, what electricity consumers really want is “a reliable service at an affordable price”.

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new episodes and more! http://bit.ly/2Sk4diT

In this episode, Chris Peeters, CEO of the Elia Group, shares his views with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, on what the digitalisation of the energy system really means and discusses the key challenges and consequences for different market players. In Chris Peeters’ perspective, one of the immediate uses of digital technologies will be on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of day-to-day activities. On the other hand, Chris also notes that digitalisation will enable an efficient interaction amongst the different actors of a system that will be much more decentralized and electrified. In this new context, consumers will play an increasingly important role as we will be moving to “the concept of, first of all, consumer in the centre and, secondly, around that consumer, providers of energy as a service”. Thanks to digitalisation, market players will also become much more agile in addressing consumers’ specific needs. Regarding electricity grid operators, Chris Peeters points out two lines of action for the coming years: continue investing in the infrastructure to adjust to the new system setup and “making sure that the system evolves in a way that is actually adapting to the new needs of the clients”. Throughout this transition, “all these technologies [blockchain, artificial intelligence, drones, satellite images and big data] have somewhere their place in the system”. Regarding the large investments expected to digitize networks, Chris Peeters believes that “we should really limit the regulated sector to […] a very robust, lean and mean layer, and all the other investments need to prove themselves as commercially viable.”

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new episodes and more! http://bit.ly/2Sk4diT

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 standards in these mines are as high as possible”, but “we cannot just be replacing every single internal combustion engine in Europe with an electric vehicle”. One of the key strategies to address the climate change is “understanding and accepting that we cannot keep the same system that we have going and just replacing it”. According to Tara Connolly, “we need to significantly downsize a lot of what we are doing”.

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new episodes and more! http://bit.ly/2Sk4diT