Suchergebnisse

QM-AI-11-002-EN-C (print)/QM-AI-11-002-EN-N (online) ; THINK Policy Briefs are abbreviated versions of THINK Reports. ; The EU is subscribing to the international trend of local governments becoming more involved in climate change policy-making and higher levels of government encouraging this trend. With the Covenant of Mayors, the EU has already been successful in voluntarily committing city authorities to reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020. The ambition of the Smart Cities Initiative is to speed up the transition towards local sustainable energy systems. A portfolio of smart cities that represents the population of European cities should be selected, consisting of cities with different energy fundamentals, a different political economy, and different institutional capacities. The cities in this portfolio need to be given the institutional flexibility (human and financial resources) to conceive and manage the implementation of concepts of city smartness, i.e. to lead by example (first level of city smartness: city as a public actor), to govern the actions by the private urban actors (second level of city smartness: city as a local policy maker), and to promote an integrated approach (third level of city smartness: city as a coordinator). To have an impact, the initiative needs to establish a strict performance reporting methodology (currently, city pioneer experiences are difficult to compare or replicate because of a lack of reporting, and pioneers that do report, use very different reporting methodologies), which would allow the creation of a good-practice forum or register. An EU level legislative initiative to require all cities to report about their progress or lack of progress is also recommended to further improve the impact of the initiative. ; The THINK project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Strategic Energy Technology Plan. (Call FP7-ENERGY-2009-2, Grant Agreement no: 249736). Coordinator: Prof. Jean-Michel Glachant and Dr. Leonardo Meeus, Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

A multitude of articles in the Clean Energy Package (CEP) Directive on common rules for the internal market for electricity (e-Directive) guide Member States (MS) to innovate in new domains related to the electricity system.2 In short, these articles set principles lining out the boundaries for the implementation of national regulatory frameworks. At the same time, these same new domains fall within the scope of network code areas identified in the CEP Regulation on the internal market for electricity (e-Regulation).3 More precisely, in Art. 59 of the e-Regulation areas are described for which binding Commission Regulations can be developed. Some of the network code areas in Art. 59 were already described in the Third Energy Package, which preceded the CEP, and lay at the basis of eight network codes and guidelines which are currently in force. The new e-Regulation added some new network code areas and amended some existing ones. The general idea is that innovation with regulation at MS-level, triggered by the e-Directive, can in the longer term serve for inspiration for new network codes or guidelines at EU-level or for amendments of existing ones. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824330

Work Package 7 (WP7) of the Progress on Meshed HVDC Offshore Transmission Networks (PROMOTioN) Horizon 2020 project focuses on various legal, financial and economic aspects of developing an integrated offshore infrastructure. Task 7.2 focuses on the development of an economic framework for the offshore grid in terms of three building blocks, namely: planning, investment, and operation. 1. Offshore grid planning comprises three topics, namely: Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) methods, onshoreoffshore coordination, and public participation. 2. Offshore grid investment comprises four topics: cooperation mechanisms for renewable support, transmission tariffs, investment incentives, and Cross-Border Cost Allocation (CBCA) methods. 3. Offshore grid operation focuses on the balancing mechanism in the offshore wind context. This final report extends our intermediate report with the addition of three new topics: incentives, CBCA and the balancing mechanism. The remaining chapters are identical to the intermediate report. In this section, we provide a summary of the research that has been undertaken so far and the main conclusions from our analysis. ; This result is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691714.

In many countries, distribution grid tariffs are being reformed to adapt to the new realities of an electricity system with distributed energy resources. In Europe, legislative proposals have been made to harmonize these reforms across country borders. Many stakeholders have argued that distribution tariffs are a local affair, while the EU institutions argued that there can be spillovers to other countries, which could justify a more harmonized approach. In this paper, we quantify these spillovers with a simplifed numerical example to give an order of magnitude. We look at different scenarios, and find that the spillovers can be both negative and positive. We also illustrate that the relative size of the countries is an important driver for the signifcance of the effects. To be able to quantify these effects, we developed a long-run market equilibrium model that captures the wholesale market effects of distribution grid tariffs. The problem is formulated as a non-cooperative game involving consumers, generating companies and distribution system operators in a stylized electricity market.

Each semester the THINK project publishes two research reports based on topics proposed by the European Commission ; QM-31-11-490-EN-C (print) QM-31-11-490-EN-N (online) ; The THINK project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Strategic Energy Technology Plan. (Call FP7-ENERGY-2009-2, Grant Agreement no: 249736). Coordinator: Prof. Jean-Michel Glachant and Dr. Leonardo Meeus, Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

The article is based on the EUI RSCAS Working Paper; 2011/11; Florence School of Regulation. ; Analysis of the visions of key EU Member States to achieve a low-carbon energy system by 2050 finds that the states are already pursuing sometimes divergent strategies that create new risks for energy policy fragmentation but also imply new opportunities for cooperation, and for EU institutions to provide added value to national policies.

QM-AI-12-002-EN-C (print)/QM-AI-12-002-EN-N (online) ; THINK Policy Briefs are abbreviated versions of THINK Reports. ; The objective of the 5th report of THINK has been to formulate policy recommendations to the European Commission (DG Energy) on offshore grids, and this brief is derived from that report. The development of an offshore grid is able to play a significant role in the accomplishment of the EU energy and climate objectives. The total installed capacity of offshore wind farms is expected to increase from the existing 3 GW to about 40 GW by 2020. The number one priority project in the recently proposed EU infrastructure package is the Northern Seas offshore grid. There are two possible offshore grid developments (Figure 1): there could be a multiplication of standalone lines, which already exists today; or there could also be a transition towards combined solutions, which requires more advanced grid technology than what is currently on the shelf. The first would correspond to an increase of shore to shore investments to exchange energy across borders or to relieve congestion within an onshore grid, and an increase in farm to shore investments to connect offshore wind farms to the existing onshore grid. The second instead would imply mixed investments, combining the connection of offshore wind farms with the creation of interconnection capacity. The potential for EU added value depends on which of these alternative offshore grid developments will prevail. The economic case for combined solutions is still uncertain, but regulation needs to be proactive to avoid compromising this possible offshore grid development. It means that we have to address the fact that the currently mainly national regulatory frames for farm to shore and shore to shore investments are unsound, and the difficulties to design and develop combined solutions are tremendous. We recommend the European Commission to take initiatives to: 1// harmonize into economically sound regulatory frames for offshore transmission investments; 2// harmonize the renewable support schemes for offshore wind farms; 3// facilitate the ex-ante allocation of costs and benefits of offshore transmission investments; 4// speed-up offshore grid technology development; 5// adapt the Community-wide transmission planning to offshore grids, while also allowing regionalized solutions for the implementation of some of these remedies. A least regret EU policy on offshore grids indeed also implies giving a chance to regional initiatives, such as the North Seas Countries' Offshore Grid Initiative. ; The THINK project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Strategic Energy Technology Plan. (Call FP7-ENERGY-2009-2, Grant Agreement no: 249736). Coordinator: Prof. Jean-Michel Glachant and Dr. Leonardo Meeus, Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges regarding the achievement of a low-carbon energy system in the EU by 2050. We analyze the visions presented by stakeholders and existing strategies of member state to achieve this transition. The five main challenges identified are the following: 1// energy efficiency - to ensure ambitious energy savings; 2// GHG emissions - to go towards a nearly zero-carbon electricity system; 3// renewable energy - to push effective technologies into the market; 4// energy infrastructure - to ensure timely investment in the electricity transmission grid capacity across borders; 5// energy markets - to guarantee timely investment in electricity generation back-up capacity. We also find that member states are already pursuing different strategies in dealing with these challenges. This creates risks for a European energy policy fragmentation. It also opens new opportunities for cooperation among member states so that the European Commission could demonstrate how to produce European added value.

QM-AI-11-004-EN-C (print)/QM-AI-11-004-EN-N (online) ; THINK Policy Briefs are abbreviated versions of THINK Reports. ; The European Commission recently released a first roadmap that already indicates what could be the relative contributions of the different sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050, which is setting the scene for new EU level policy actions. A second roadmap should be released by the DG Energy 2050 later this year, 2011. Different stakeholders have already presented their vision of the path towards 2050 and different strategies to make it happen are emerging at member state level, which bring new risks for policy fragmentation, but also opens new opportunities for cooperation among member states and for European added value. We provide a rationale for ten priority EU-interventions to add European value to member states' first steps on the road towards 2050. We distinguish three different types of EU involvement to 2050, i.e. "effort sharing", "harmonization", and "level playing field". ; The THINK project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Strategic Energy Technology Plan. (Call FP7-ENERGY-2009-2, Grant Agreement no: 249736). Coordinator: Prof. Jean-Michel Glachant and Dr. Leonardo Meeus, Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

Loyola de Palacio Programme on Energy Policy ; If Europe is serious about climate change, it has to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, thereby effectively going to a (near-) zero carbon energy and thus, electricity system. The European Climate Foundation, Eurelectric, and the International Energy Agency have consequently published a study elaborating on the final goal of this transition. The studies project scenarios of how such a (near-) zero electricity system would look like and provide recommendations on the policies needed to guide the transition. In this paper, we observe that these studies tell a tale with many similarities. In spite of increased energy efficiency, the electricity demand is projected to increase substantially, with up to 50% from today towards 2050, due to shifts from other sectors towards electricity. This demand will be supplied by a minimum of 40% electricity generation by RES, with the remainder being filled up with nuclear and fossils with CCS. The importance of grid reinforcement, expansion, and planning in this context is emphasized in all three studies. While all three studies further recommend relying on the EU ETS for the transition, the European Climate Foundation and the International Energy Agency consider continuing with targets for RES in combination with a more harmonized EU RES support scheme.

This deliverable consists of an introduction and two main parts. Each part consists of two sections:Data exchange and interoperability and Demand-side flexibility. The two main topics of this interim deliverable, data exchange and interoperability and Demand-Side Flexibility (DSF), were identified as relevant research domains in the regulatory gap analysis performed in INTERRFACE Deliverable D2.4 Completed Regulatory Framework (Schittekatte et al. 2019).1 These two topics have been listed as European priority legislations. The relevance of the network code on Demand-Side Flexibility (DSF) has been confirmed in the priority list for new network codes for 2020-2023 published on 14 October 2020 by the European Commission. The implementing act on interoperability is described as a priority action in the European Energy System Integration Strategy published in July 2020 by the European Commission. Please note that our work around flexibility market design as part of D2.4 is also very relevant with regards to the planned new network code on DSF. We chose not to include that research in this deliverable as it is already published as part of D2.4 but we plan to integrate it, possibly including some updates, in the final deliverable of T9.4. The research results have a two-fold purpose. First, the research results feed into the ongoing discussions at national and European level around the new European legislations. Second, the research results are of direct use for the project partners who are involved in the INTERRFACE demonstrators. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824330