*** REGISTER NOW *** for our online panel discussion on Friday 24th March 09:30-10:45 CET, “Electricity Market Design: how can reforms accelerate the transition and help cut energy prices?” Our panellists are Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director, DG ENER; Wanda Buk, Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs, PGE; Leonardo Meeus, Director of the Florence School of Regulation; JĂ©rĂ´me Le Page, Director for European Electricity Markets, EFET; Michaela … [Read more...]
Understanding the new EU ETS (Part 2): Buildings, Road Transport, Fuels. And how the revenues will be spent
A fortnight ago we published Simon Göss’s explainer of the big changes happening to the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). That article covered the new rules coming in for the existing EU ETS, and the implementation of the new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). This article explains the introduction of an EU ETS II that extends emissions trading to the buildings sector, road transport and the usage of fuels in other, as of now not … [Read more...]
EU electricity market reform: completing, not dismantling, the integration is the answer
Leonardo Meeus at the Florence School of Regulation explains why electricity market reform in the EU must be about completing the process of integration, not unwinding it. He breaks down his argument into five categories – Electricity Markets, Contracts for Difference (CfD) and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms (CRM), Energy Communities, and Demand-side Flexibility – and with each he defines their purpose, looks at … [Read more...]
Russia-Ukraine: modelling the consequences for the European electricity market to 2050
Alex Schmitt, Christoph Kellermann, Calvin Triems and Huangluolun Zhou at Energy Brainpool have used their modelling tools to update their predictions of how the European electricity market will develop over the next 30 years, given a target of 99% emission-free generation in 2050. Projections are made on generation (mix and volumes) and price. The big change from their last predictions is the Russia-Ukraine war and Europe’s determination to ramp … [Read more...]
Gas crunch causes electricity crisis despite record cheap clean energy. Time to create a “green energy pool”?
In the UK and similar nations, the gas crisis is ballooning electricity prices too. That’s because the UK operates a wholesale electricity market where the most expensive power sets the price. As we enter an era where renewables are getting cheaper every year, it’s time to change that model so that consumers see the benefits, argues Michael Grubb at UCL. The design of electricity systems is not keeping up with the revolution in renewable energy. … [Read more...]
Europe’s power market: acceptable energy costs and long term security of supply needs today’s rules reshaped
In the last few months the electricity and gas markets in Europe experienced unusual turbulence, particularly the price spike for electricity, gas and coal. This was due to a combination of several factors. We can argue about the causes but none of them gets us closer to the point: Europe's current exposure and vulnerability to such risks should be blamed mainly on the electricity market design, which does not support energy security nearly … [Read more...]
Electricity Market Reform: ACER must empower consumers, not just network operators
ACER, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, has delivered to the EC its preliminary assessment of Europe's high energy prices and the current wholesale electricity market design. Simon Skillings and Lisa Fischer at E3G interpret ACER’s assessment as showing it wants to maintain the status quo. However, long-term changes in market design are inevitable. The authors want ACER to accept this reality and ensure the changes are … [Read more...]
Will COP26 set right the booming Carbon Offset Market
Carbon offsetting is when a company, rather than cut its own emissions, pays someone else somewhere else to cut their emissions. It has always been controversial because it has two main problems. Buying carbon credits means you aren’t putting the effort in to cut emissions yourself. And the risk of double-counting: when the company reports it has cut emissions, and so does the “someone else”. A third problem exists too: measuring whether the … [Read more...]
Ramping-up EU hydrogen markets with effective Regulation
On Wednesday (June 16, 2021), Energy Post is hosting a panel with representatives from ELIA, SNAM and BASF to discuss the best approach to market and system design for Hydrogen. It's free and you can register here. In this article, Walter Boltz, Senior European Energy Advisor, makes the case for a regulatory framework 'mostly identical' to the one so painstakingly developed for natural gas with a few practical differences - but this won't suit … [Read more...]
Do government renewable energy auctions squeeze the PPA market?
Spanish government renewable energy auctions in January produced record-breaking low strike prices for both wind and solar. For solar the average price was €24.47/MWh (the lowest was €14.98/MWh), guaranteed for 12 years through contracts-for-difference (CfDs). As such auctions continue around Europe, Michael ClauĂźner at Energy Brainpool asks what impact these prices will have on future power prices in general and on solar power purchase agreement … [Read more...]
Carbon Offsetting via old wind and solar farms is no way to reduce emissions
Companies can offset their emissions by buying carbon credits, where the money goes to fund clean energy projects. But the carbon credit market includes credits for very old projects. This is a foolish waste, explain Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis at UCL (UK). The market must be based on the principle of additionality: the money should be aimed at projects that would not have happened otherwise, thereby causing emissions reductions that would not … [Read more...]
A new EU Gas Market must expose it to all clean energy solutions, not just gas-on-gas
Towards the end of this year the EC is expected to issue new proposals for gas legislation, a once in a decade market reform. Simon Skillings and Lisa Fischer at E3G highlight the big difference between the design of gas and electricity markets for Europe. The electricity market is growing, the gas market needs to shrink. The authors quote figures showing that the EU's 55% emissions reduction target for 2030 means natural gas use will reduce by … [Read more...]
WEO 2020 means updated price predictions to 2040: Oil, Gas, Coal, Renewables, Power
The combined effect of the global lockdown, more ambitious climate policies and the rise of renewables will have a significant effect on European power prices up to 2040, as well as the sales revenues of renewable energies. Carlos Perez-Linkenheil at Energy Brainpool uses their Power2Sim model to look at the data in the IEA’s latest World Energy Outlook 2020 and make quantitative forecasts. The pandemic has caused structural distortions to the … [Read more...]
California learns even flexible Emissions Markets won’t guarantee price stability
In May, emissions allowance prices hit rock bottom in California. How can cap-and-trade work properly when prices are so volatile and difficult to predict? It makes life very difficult for businesses and investors, not to mention the state. Changes to the rules are being proposed to introduce more flexibility into the effective price floors, ceilings and the availability of allowances. But Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas … [Read more...]
Dutch-Spanish startup navigates coronavirus fallout while also guiding utilities into the digital age
In late summer 2015 at a research university in Belgium, an Italian graduate student new to campus attended a welcome event hosted by engineering department faculty. Sampling beer brewed by an electrical engineering student association, Simone Accornero mingled with a dozen other new classmates in his program at KU Leuven. Accornero began chatting with an engineering master’s student who had just arrived from Poland. “We hit it off,” Accornero … [Read more...]
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