The EU Electricity Policy Outlook for the Smart Grid Roll-Out
The energy transition from a socio-economic system based on fossil fuels to a sustainable low-carbon system is a multi-facetted process. This “transformation” of the energy system, more specifically of the power system, creates several challenges.
Capacity Mechanisms : EU or National Issue? Are Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms Helping to Build the Market or Just a Symptom of What Does Not Work ?
In a competitive energy system, generation investment choices are let to investors. It is then the responsibility of the market actors to invest and ensure peak, medium and base load generation, based on market perspectives and trends. If through actors" investments the stability of the system cannot be ensured (because, for example, peak generation is not sufficient to satisfy demand), some measures have to be taken. These can have economic and system integrity impacts on neighboring systems, especially if they are connected. This is precisely what is happening in the European electricity market.
The European Power System - Decarbonization and Cost Reduction: Lost in Transmissions?
Europe’s energy policy is commonly defined by three axes of equal importance: security of supplies, competitiveness and sustainable development. The European Commission is mandated to develop the policy tools that allow the implementation of this common policy. Early on, challenges arose from the trade-offs to be made not only between these three pillars but also between a common European policy and national approaches. The European Commission has always had to struggle in attempting to keep a balanced line.
German Nuclear: Green Is Good Politics
In polarized politics, the voter must take on faith the wisdom inherent in the principled political position. Who cannot be impressed by the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, especially after living through the fallout from Chernobyl? But is it reasonable to send the voter to the booth with only half the information? Does the German voter have any idea what it means to shut down its nuclear power in just ten years? Have German politicians made any effort to tell them?
The EU's Major Electricity and Gas Utilities since Market Liberalization
A major change has taken place in the company structure of the European electricity and gas markets. Twenty years ago, national or regional monopolies dominated the markets and there was strictly no competition between utilities. But since the liberalization of EU energy markets began in the 1990s, companies like E.ON, GDF Suez, EDF, Enel, and RWE have become European giants with activities in a large number of Member States.
German Power Options: Lack of Clarity Will Be Costly
The German environment minister Norbert Röttgen (CDU) revived the German debate about the future of nuclear power in February when he argued for a limited lifetime extension of Germany’s nuclear plants.
More than Reforming the Markets, Electricity Tariff Reform Can Be Helpfull in Adressing High Prices
In an article published in "Le Monde ", energy economist Cédric Philibert recommends a progressive and real-time pricing system, which would preserve the incentive effects that would be eliminated by the abolition of the single European market.
EDF’s problems pile up as full nationalisation looms
French supplier of nuclear energy is struggling with plant shutdowns, build problems and skills shortages.
RTE and the transformation of the European electricity system - Keynote Address by Vincent THOUVENIN
Vincent Thouvenin, Director for European Affairs of RTE, explains the role and challenges faced by transmission system operators in the energy transition at the 2030 horizon, and how the Clean Energy Package will accompany the transformation of our electricity systems.
The Transformation of the Electricity French System in 2030 - Mario Pain
Deputy Director, Ministère de la transition écologique et solidaire, describes the main challenges for the French energy system at the 2030 horizon and highlights the need to find the right balance between EU harmonization and national measures to achieve energy transition at the lowest cost.
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