FSR

Digital technologies enable accurate monitoring and controlling of all devices connected to the electricity grid and the relative flows of energy. By doing so, they can harness the untapped potential for flexibility hidden in the system, both on the demand and the supply side, offering a solution to the challenges raised by decentralisation and decarbonisation. This is what aggregators and virtual...

How can you ensure that a monopoly company behaves in the best interest of consumers when the technological, economic and political landscape is always moving? In this podcast, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Joe Perkins (Ofgem) discuss the British experience with inventive regulation for energy grids. In 2010, Ofgem launched a major reassessment of the regulatory framework for energy grids. The analysi...

Today, in Europe electricity prices are determined per (bidding) zone which equals in most cases a country. Under zonal pricing, only transmission capacity limitations between the zones are considered in the market-clearing process. The transmission lines within a zone are assumed to have unlimited capacity. This assumption is more and more challenged; one factor is the changing pattern of network...

There is little debate about a charging point in your garage. It is yours. But what about charging points in the street? In this short podcast, Tim Schittekatte interviews Luca Lo Schiavo, Vice-Director Energy Infrastructure and Unbundling at the Italian regulator ARERA. The Italian experience is an interesting case in this regard. Namely, a call for pilot projects was launched to build and operat...

Is EU gas markets standardization a shortcut to energy transition or an obstacle? Listen to Ilaria Conti (FSR) and Nicolas Peugniez (GRTgaz) reflect on the status of implementation of #gasNetworkCodes and the way ahead towards #decarbonisation

In the context of a FSR workshop on zonal vs. nodal pricing in electricity markets on 25 January 2019, Valerie Reif (FSR) interviews a panellist from the Austrian regulatory authority. Christine Materazzi-Wagner, Director Electricity at E-Control, talks about her personal take-aways from the workshop, the EU target model for electricity and the possibilities of moving towards a nodal approach in E...

At the IRENA General Assembly, Swetha Bhagwat (FSR Global) interviews Andris Piebalgs, FSR Part-time Professor and one of the authors of the Global Commission’s Report launched on 11 January in Abu Dhabi. The Report presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of the far-reaching geopolitical consequences driven by the rapid development of renewable energy and it suggests several areas where int...

At the IRENA Assembly held in January 2019 in Abu Dhabi, the FSR Director, Jean-Michel Glachant and the Head of FSR Global, Swetha Bhagwat interview Paul Van Son, CEO of DII. What are the real cost levels of renewables (Solar and Wind) today? What should be the next measures to take and what are the roadblocks in policy and regulation? Learn more about the IRENA Assembly here: https://www.irena.or...

FutureGas project looks into the ways the gas sector could be integrated in the Danish energy system and contribute to clean energy transition e.g. through the injection of green gas. The researchers from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and key stakeholders of the Danish gas industry have been working with 18 international partners (including Florence School of Regulation) to pursue the rese...

In this podcast, Jessica Dabrowski (FSR) and Agnes da Costa (Director, Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy) discuss Brazil's long history of renewable energy development. Agnes provides in-depth insight on the current status of Brazil's renewable energy mix, developments in their transport sector and provides key lessons for other countries to best address challenges of the energy transition an...

In the context of the Energy Innovation Academy held in Florence on 28-30 November 2018, Tim Schittekatte (FSR) interviews one of the Academy participants, John Smith (University of Hertfordshire) who presented his work on ‘An ecological stock-flow consistent approach to macroeconomic stability, entropy, and chaos’. What do we mean by innovation? How can regulation deal with change in complex adap...

In the context of the Energy Innovation Academy held in Florence on 28-30 November 2018, the FSR Director Jean-Michel Glachant interviews Miguel Vazquez, Head of the recently launched Energy Innovation Area. Regulation in times of innovation: how to deal with complexity and uncertainty? The new FSR area provides a platform for research, training and policy discussion to respond to those challenges...

The EU-funded SmartNet project http://fsr.eui.eu/event/smartnet-workshop-series/ organised in Florence (24 to 26 October) aimed to present the recent development of this research project and get feedback from different participants (TSOs/DSOs, regulators and utilities) on topics related to the coordination between TSOs and DSOs for the access to flexibility services. In this podcast, Athir Nouicer...

The EU-funded SmartNet project is attracting interest from Europe and beyond. Professor Luis Ochoa (https://bit.ly/2Pj4pRa), from the University of Melbourne (Australia), joined the workshop http://fsr.eui.eu/event/smartnet-workshop-series/ organised in Florence to explore the latest novelties on related topics with a global relevance: the integration of the growing number of distributed energy re...

On the sideline of the FSR Policy Advisory Council meeting on the 5th and 6th of November 2018, Christophe Poillion (Vice President of European Affairs, GRT Gaz) and Tara Amirkhizi (Visiting PhD student, FSR) discuss the power to gas technology and the experience the French gas TSO has had with it so far. In an energy grid that perceives power and gas as a whole, Christophe describes power to gas...

Recently, reliability options were implemented as part of the new Irish integrated single electricity market (I-SEM). Thus becoming the first European Union Member state implement this capacity remuneration mechanism design. Pradyumna Bhagwat (FSR) discusses with Barry Hussey, Manager at the Irish Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), about his thoughts on reliability options in Ireland an...

In a ruling from the WTO, published on 10 August 2018, several of Russia’s arguments regarding the alleged incompatibility of the EU’s energy policy measures with multilateral trade rules were dismissed. But was it a total defeat for Russia? In this podcast Moritz Wüstenberg, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, discusses the ruling and its wider implications. Following Russia’s with...

Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) and Dr Carlo Stagnaro (Istituto Bruno Leoni, IBL) reflect on the potential benefits of competition in retail electricity markets and briefly discuss the situation in Italy, where a standard regulated offer, called “Maggior Tutela” in Italian, is available to households and small companies. According to Dr Stagnaro, the offer’s design nurtures consumers’ inertia and market con...

In this podcast, Dr. Tanya Harrington delves into the complex geopolitical, economic, and legal issues surrounding Brexit and the Irish electricity market. For more details, see here: http://fsr.eui.eu/the-irish-question-brexit-and-the-i-sem/

Energy poverty is a widespread and even growing reality across Europe. The EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC) measured in 2013 shows that 10.7% of the population (approximately 54 million people) are unable to afford basic levels of energy for essential needs. Listen to Prof Pippo Ranci from FSR, and Prof Stefan Bouzarovski from Manchester University discuss; some of the EU energy...

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) poses several questions to Miguel Pardo (Endesa) about the pilot project being carried out in Barcelona. Vodafone, which is among the several partners involved, owns 20 radio base stations that are used as distributed energy resources (DER). Such stations participate in a simulated local market and provide anc...

In the context of the public workshop held on 20 June in Brussels, Athir Nouicer (FSR) interviewed Dr. Tomás Gómez San Román, Professor at Comillas Pontifical University, about the impacts of the SmartNet project on the future of electricity markets. SmartNet has three pilot projects (in Italy, Denmark and Spain) that address technical issues related to system operation and test the different TSO/...

Before the start of the SmartNet workshop in Brussels on the 20 June, Nicolò Rossetto (FSR) had the opportunity to talk with Gianluigi Migliavacca (RSE) about the importance of the project and the insights that it is expected to provide to policy-makers, regulators, network companies, and market players. SmartNet is testing different coordination mechanisms for the efficient and secure management...

Listen to our interview with Tony Imaduwa, CEO of Seychelles Energy Commission, conducted during the first Regional Forum on Sustainable Energy in Mauritius from May 28-30, 2018. Tony discusses the role of the Seychelles Energy Commission, the regulatory challenges that are hindering the energy transition, and the measures that have been introduced to address these challenges.

Listen to our interview with Laurent Sam, Engineer at Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Seychelles, at the first Regional Forum of on Sustainable Energy at Mauritius from May 28-30, 2018. Laurent discusses the key challenges such as resource mapping, renewable energy planning, grid management and efficient use of funding while integrating renewables into the power system. visit the Florence Scho...