EU Energy Policy Blog

The European Union is engaged in a process of market inte- gration over a long period. Cross-border energy infrastructure investments should play a key role in reaching this objective. However, cross-border investment projects having a European interest are currently undertaken only country by country with an insufficient cooperation between actors involved in such a project. Beside the lack of cooperation, the asymmetries of cost allocation and of benefit distribution of cross-border infrastructure plus the presence of economic externalities have lead to a suboptimal situation at the EU level. Continue reading »

On 22 June 2011, a proposal for increased Energy Efficiency was presented by the European Commission. The energy efficiency directive was intensely negotiated and faced strong internal opposition from a number of players. DG Climate officials have shared their concerns with the public.
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Electricity market regime is at a crossroads. There is a fundamental tension between short term pricing as a signal for investing in the whole generation mix and the long term policy objectives in matter of energy security and carbon emission control. It is due to inherent specific price- and volume-risks inherent to electricity markets for investing in large-sized technologies with large upfront costs and long lead times, like non-fossil technologies, and more generally low carbon equipment. Risk mitigation and risk sharing by long term contracts or vertical integration are needed with even the generalization of these arrangements under the government coordination as it is envisaged by the Electricity Market Reform in the UK.
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Reacting to the Fukushima nuclear disaster the German government has decided to phase out nuclear power in Germany. The seven oldest of the 17 reactors that were temporarily shutdown in a 3-months “moratorium” will not be restarted again but closed down for good. The remaining 10 reactors will be run down within the next decade according to a predefined timetable that leaves no place for reopening the debate. It is one of the peculiarities of history that the center-right government of Chancellor Mrs. Merkel is thus implementing a decision taken under the social democratic-green coalition a decade ago that it had try to reverse only six months ago…
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In 2004, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the collaborative research arm of the electric power industry, estimated that to implement the smart grid would cost around $165 billion for the US, give or take a little. That, many said, is a lot of money, and questioned if the benefits would outweigh the costs.
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In 2000, Neil Armstrong, on behalf of the National Academies of Engineering, announced the 20 engineering achievements of the 20th century that have had the greatest impact on quality of life. At the top of the list: the electrification of the United States, which, he noted, “changed the country’s economic development and gave rural populations the same opportunities and amenities as people in the cities.” “If anything shines as an example of how engineering has changed the world during the 20th century,” he observed, “it is clearly the power that we use in our homes and businesses.”
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The Fukushima nuclear on-going accident has led to a growing concern about electricity generation from nuclear origin which will undoubtedly have long term impacts on nuclear new-build. In the short term a debate has emerged in the European Union about the safety of the 143 nuclear power plants in operation. In particular, it is argued that the oldest nuclear power plants should be closed because they are more dangerous. Is there any evidence that older NPPs are less safe? We argue that policy makers need to look beyond this simplistic criterion.
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The answer to this rather trivial question, to a great extent, will determine if all the money going into smart meters, two-way communications, smart devices, energy management technologies, and ultimately the smart grid, will be worth it. The reason is simple. At the core of nearly every smart metering scheme is the ability to implement dynamic pricing – which in turn – is expected to influence consumer behavior and energy consumption, presumably from peak to off-peak periods.
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You have heard about all the alternative power methods for vehicles, but a lot of the electric cars discussed are never really produced at all. Many times the cost of production is too high or they just don’t get the attention they need to make it on the market. No matter what the reason, these vehicles are sometimes never seen at all past the prototype that usually shows as unsuccessful as people aren’t looking for just fuel efficiency but many other features that are sometimes not found with these great vehicles. In some cases however, there proved to be a reason to produce the vehicles and present to the commercial market for sale, with some surprising vehicles that actually made it such as these 10 electric cars that were actually produced.
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After a century of trying, the network service industries, including the electric power delivery business, succeeded in fully disengaging customers from the upstream side of the business. This was accomplished through massive investment in an extensive and ubiquitous distribution network, the so-called poles and wires, which now connects nearly every consumer in developed parts of the world to the grid. Within our premises, we are never more than a few feet away from a switch or a plug – and for all practical matters, that is virtually all we need.
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