FSR

Enrico Maria Carlini, head of Management and engineering of the electric system at the Italian power TSO, Terna

Recorded 26 January 2016 in Milan at the SmartNet project kick-off meeting, in this interview by Ilaria Conti, Research and Policy Coordinator from the Florence School of Regulation, Enrico Maria Carlini talks about the evolution of the roll of TSOs and DSOs and tells us what the SmartNet project means to Terna.

“The project (SmartNet) is very important for us, for the transmission operator point of view, taking into account that dispersed generation is now more or less 22 or 25% of the total energy produced in Italy”

“Looking at the future of course, we have more integration between TSOs and DSOs, particularly on the real time information that we need to exchange”

Thomas-Olivier Léautier, Toulouse School of Economics, University of Toulouse Graduate School of Management, France and Fabien Roques, Compass Lexecon, University Paris Dauphine, France.

While directing the Florence School of Regulation’s Executive Course to master Electricity Markets, 18-19 January 2016, in Florence, Italy, Thomas-Olivier Léautier and Fabien Roques met with reporter Nicholas Barrett to discuss the relationship between regulation and economics as well as the EU’s efforts to tackle climate change.

Thomas-Olivier Léautier: “We need to reduce our carbon emissions while protecting our standard of living. Therefore, we need to, if possible, consume less electricity and produce less CO2 as we produce electricity. That requires tens of hundreds of billions of euros of investment. The more efficiently we do this… the cheaper this massive transformation is going be for society… it's super important.”

Fabien Roques: “The European Commissions, even though it’s been criticised, is doing a good job even with the limited powers it’s got.”

Fabien Roques: “In Europe, each country is very small regarding climate change compared to America and China, so having a coordinated approach to climate change is the only way for Europe to be one of the leaders on climate change.”

Jonathan Stern, Head of Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

Recorded in Vienna where Jonathan was co-chairing the ‘EU-Russia Energy Dialogue Gas Advisory Council’ ; and Jean-Michel Glachant (Director of the Florence School of Regulation) attending.

In this interview we get a basic understanding were we (the EU) are today with gas and where we are going.

“We are unsure where we are because things are changing so quickly, but the general view is that, after a decline of about 20% of demand in the EU, gas is stabilising, and will remain probably on this level for a few years unless decarbonisation towards renewables is very very successful, or the other probability is that coal will be phased out faster than we think, which means gas could improve its position a little bit, but we don’t see a very huge increase in gas demand."

“The big problem that we have at the moment in Europe, and this is a new problem, is that we see domestic production beginning to going down much faster than we thought, principally because of the situation in the Netherlands.”

“If you mean surprise in terms of cutting off gas because of Ukrainian problems, I think all of that is over because the EU is now very much involved in that process”

Xavier Labandeira, Director of FSR Climate, shares his thoughts on the outcomes of the Paris Climate Talks.

“We for the first time introduce a 1.5 degree maximum increase of temperature as an aspirational environmental objective”

“Once the emitters are into the agreement, which was not the case with Kyoto, they may find it easier to proceed in a way cooperatively, because leakage or competitiveness issues are minimalized”

“More question marks arise from the issue of funding the huge investment flows necessary for the structural tenors that we need in order to have this decarbonisation”

“Hopefully we will see many pricing devices in both the developed and developing world in the next few years”

“We have a first step, a positive first step, but still much is needed, much more is needed, so we should not be too happy yet”

Simone Mori is Enel Group’s Head of European Affairs, and Head of Carbon Strategy.

In this interview from Brussels just before the Paris Climate Conference, he talks with Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School of Regulation, about his optimism for COP21.

“If we should find a single parameter which drove the change up until now, it’s the dramatic drop in cost of several technologies”

“Europe today is much more aligned, the Commission, the countries, the companies, there is a large consensus about the 2030 package”

“This is a very wise idea, to put together top-down long-term targets to study direction, and a bottom-up, flexible menu of possible intervention to be at the disposal of national commitments but under the umbrella of multilateral agreement.”

Andris Piebalgs is Adviser to the President of Latvia and former Commissioner for Energy (Barroso I) and for Development (Barroso II) and now Senior Fellow at the Florence School of Regulation.

Security of gas supply, is there enough security and is there enough supply? How important are long term contracts? An EU external energy policy?

An interview by Ilaria Conti, Research and Policy Coordinator from the Florence School of Regulation

Recorded 17 November 2015

“There are some security of supply issues that make this topic geopolitical, that make this topic also emotional, and because of all this complexity it is also a very interesting topic”

“long term contracts… it is also security of demand, because producers need to invest a lot”

“There are two challenges […] for the EU on Long Term Contracts: one is transparency”

http://florence-school.eu/event/two-day-executive-course-to-master-electricity-markets-18-19-january-2016/

Fabien Roques, Senior Vice President with the Economics Consultancy Compass Lexecon and Associate Professor at University Paris-Dauphine, talks about the demand response, which is one of the big missing parts of well-functioning electricity markets. This topic will be discussed during the 2-Day Executive Course to master Electricity Markets

Massimo Tavoni, Deputy Coordinator for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, FEEM, Italy.

On the 12 November 2015 at the European University Institute in Florence, he was the discussant at the presentation of the book ‘EU Climate Policy EXPLAINED’, co-edited by Peter Vis and Jos Delbeke.

This book explains the EU’s climate policies in an accessible way, to demonstrate the step-by-step approach that has been used to develop these policies, and the ways in which they have been tested and further improved in the light of experience. It shows that there is no single policy instrument that can bring down greenhouse gas emissions, but the challenge has been to put a jigsaw of policy instruments together that is coherent, delivers emissions reductions, and is cost-effective.

In view of the forthcoming 2015 UN Climate Change conference in Paris, this book is of great interest for academics and policy makers alike.

Peter Vis is the EU Visiting Fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (UK), for the academic year 2014–2015. Prior to that he was Head of Cabinet to Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action (2010–2014). He has an MA (history) from the University of Cambridge (UK).

On the 12 November 2015 at the European University Institute in Florence, he presented the new book ‘EU Climate Policy EXPLAINED’ which he co-edited with Jos Delbeke to Florence School of Regulation Climate and selected audience.

This book explains the EU’s climate policies in an accessible way, to demonstrate the step-by-step approach that has been used to develop these policies, and the ways in which they have been tested and further improved in the light of experience. It shows that there is no single policy instrument that can bring down greenhouse gas emissions, but the challenge has been to put a jigsaw of policy instruments together that is coherent, delivers emissions reductions, and is cost-effective.

In view of the forthcoming 2015 UN Climate Change conference in Paris, this book is of great interest for academics and policy makers alike.

Peter Vis and Massimo Tavoni answer questions from the audience after the presentation of the book ‘EU Climate Policy EXPLAINED’, co-edited by Peter Vis and Jos Delbeke.

12 November 2015, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

This book explains the EU’s climate policies in an accessible way, to demonstrate the step-by-step approach that has been used to develop these policies, and the ways in which they have been tested and further improved in the light of experience. It shows that there is no single policy instrument that can bring down greenhouse gas emissions, but the challenge has been to put a jigsaw of policy instruments together that is coherent, delivers emissions reductions, and is cost-effective.

In view of the forthcoming 2015 UN Climate Change conference in Paris, this book is of great interest for academics and policy makers alike.