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energy policy

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Gathered today in Rome for a meeting hosted by Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda, the ministers in charge of energy from the 43 members of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) agreed to step up regional cooperation on energy in order to deliver a secure, affordable and sustainable energy supply, a major factor for stability and shared prosperity in the Mediterranean region.

At the meeting, co-chaired by the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, and the Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ibrahim Saif, the ministers agreed that policy dialogue and concrete initiatives will be carried out under the three UfM energy platforms covering the priority policy areas, namely the UfM Regional Electricity Market Platform (UfM REM Platform), the UfM Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Platform (UfM REEE Platform) and the UfM Gas Platform.

 

The UfM energy platforms are flexible and effective structures which, under the coordination of the UfM Co-Presidency, organise and support systematic dialogue among UfM Members, financial institutions, regional organisations, industrial enterprises and experts.

Commissioner Arias Cañete said: “Cooperation in the energy sector is a major element of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. A secure, sustainable and competitive energy supply is a priority that Europe shares with its North African and Middle East partners, and is key to underpinning stability and prosperity across the region. To achieve these objectives, large scale investments in energy in the Mediterranean will be necessary. The bulk of the financing will have to come from private investors. We therefore need sound regulatory frameworks to attract this much-needed private capital”.

Minister Saif said: “Energy security is one of the major common concerns and challenges that are storming our region at the Mediterranean, adding more constrains to the economic and social development. Ministers and stakeholders today’s gathering stand testimonial that only by strategic cooperation, energy security can be achieved. Based on three pillars of technical cooperation conducted via three platforms, the general guidelines of strategic cooperation shall be identified; however, obstacles that persist facing this cooperation must be strategically addressed. Regulatory reforms can provide part of the solution, but efforts to tackle declining FDIs and lack of national funding schemes for infrastructural projects, is the other side of the coin.”

UfM Secretary General Sijilmassi said: “Today’s meeting demonstrates the common will of 43 countries to work together in the areas of energy and climate action. The three platforms should make the regional framework for the development of renewable energies, energy efficiency and the integration of electricity markets and gas in the Mediterranean more coherent and clearer. These initiatives illustrate the UfM’s action-driven efforts towards deeper regional cooperation and economic integration based on a specific methodology which turns our political mandate into concrete projects through a multi-partner regional dialogue”.

The UfM Gas Platform aims at establishing a regional structured dialogue allowing the gradual development of a Euro-Mediterranean gas market to promote security, transparency and predictability of both demand and supply in a manner that correctly and fairly balances the interests of producing and consuming countries and provides the basis for the long-term secure development of the abundant resources in the region.

The UfM Regional Electricity Market Platform aims at the progressive integration of energy systems and energy markets in the UfM region and, in particular, at the enhancement of electricity exchanges and interconnections, in order to achieve a secure, affordable and sustainable electricity supply for the benefit of citizens and economies in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The UfM Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Platform aims at promoting the progressive deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, in order to foster socio-economic development, contribute to ensuring that all citizens and businesses of the region have access to secure, affordable and reliable modern energy services, and support mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

With the ministers’ agreement now in place, the UfM energy platforms are established for structured policy dialogue with a view to identifying concrete partnership actions and following up on their implementation. As such, they will play a central role in taking energy cooperation in the Mediterranean region forward.

Source: UfM

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Impactos de la carga de los vehículos eléctricos según norma ISO 2015 (GWh y%) / EV Load Impacts by ISO, 2015 (GWh and %)

The electrification of passenger vehicles has become increasingly a part of decarbonization conversations in energy policy and business. Prior to 2010, Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated a total of 57,000 EVs in use. Between 2010 and 2015, EV sales surpassed 400,000 vehicles with a value of $15 billion.

With a broader range of market options and a growing infrastructure, the passenger electric vehicles (EVs) market is projected to have 11.4 million EVs on the road, with cumulative sales of 12 million EVs and a value of over $400 billion by 2025, says one of the latest reports from GTM Research.

 

To-date around $3 billion of federal incentives have supported the growth of the EV market. Many states have also offered their own incentives. Furthermore, EV adoption is supported by consumer economics and a growing sentiment that EVs can support decarbonization. “A price and energy cost analysis of conventional, hybrid and electric vehicles illustrates that the EV has the lowest lifetime cost even in a low oil price environment,” says Timotej Gavrilovic, Consultant at GTM Research and author of the report.

However, questions around the impact of adoption on the grid, and how in turn, that will affect consumer trust, still remain. “The impact of EVs on the electricity grid, estimated at 1.4 TWh in 2015, depends on how quickly consumers and the utility infrastructure can adapt to this growing market,” Gavrilovic explains. Policy, incentives and overall renewables penetration present variables in different U.S. geographies and their respective grid operations. Gavrilovic adds that, “California and Hawaii are among the first geographies facing the most challenges resulting from renewable and EV penetration. These challenges led them to increase their efforts to innovate in demand side management (DSM). EVs are just one of many possible technological solutions in the DSM toolbox that can support overall renewable and decarbonization goals.”

This market growth will have a significant impact to existing and planned grid infrastructure, and will require action from regulators, planners, and operators. This creates opportunities for existing and new market players to provide integrated solutions for the EV driver, electric utility, wholesale energy market and aggregators. In GTM Research’s recent report, “The Impact of Electric Vehicles on the Grid: Customer Adoption, Grid Load and Outlook”, these complexities are discussed and analyzed, to ultimately provide a perspective on how customer adoption and grid load will unfold. The report provides an analytical toolkit for dissecting the factors that will affect the EV market through a series of data analysis and modelling exercises, to provide a comprehensive understanding of EV load and demand both in specific ISO/RTO territories and across the U.S.

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At this month’s G7 meeting in Hamburg, Energy Ministers agreed to commit to energy efficiency as a key element of a future energy policy. Companies, governments and institutions of all types such as political parties and business organisations from a vast majority of countries are all in agreement. In the resolution document, the European Energy Commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, reiterated his congratulations on the commitments achieved “we are committed to making use of the huge unused potential to increase energy efficiency”.

At a recent forum in Spain organised by the La Vanguardia newspaper “Future Dialogues KPMG/Banco Sabadell: Energy efficiency”, he put his finger on the problem: “we must have a clear energy policy that sees efficiency as vital element”. In Spain there are hundreds of companies – from industrials to hotels and a host of services activities – that have to decide whether to undertake profitable energy efficiency projects and do not go ahead with them. The reasons are crystal clear: a lack of proper instructions and a failure to transmit confidence to corporate decision-makers so that the real agents behind stimulating activity are businesses and private individuals themselves.

To begin with, Spain’s efficiency framework requires an injection of certainty and good regulatory praxis. This translates into implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive – including the European CHP framework – and decisively overrides the stagnated positions of Spain and Portugal that voted against its approval at the European Council of October 2012. This has to be a priority of the energy policy. Read more…

Javier Rodríguez,
Managing Director, ACOGEN

Article published in: FuturENERGY May 2015

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Gamesa has inaugurated its first commercial office in Sri Lanka. The office, located in the town of Katunayaka (to the west of the island, near Colombo), will not only cater to customers’ commercial needs but will also carry out project work and maintain the wind turbines installed locally.

Gamesa, which has installed a wind capacity in this market of 45.3 MW, is Sri Lanka’s leading OEM, with a market share of close to 40%. Early entry into this market five years ago, when it installed the first wind farm developed by a private player, coupled with the ability to tailor its products to customers’ needs, has contributed to this leadership.

Sri Lanka, with a population of 20 million people, is expected to see installed wind capacity increase to 200 MW by 2017, driven by an energy policy that supports renewable sources of energy with the aim of reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and cater to burgeoning energy needs.

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Natural resources play a central role in Mexico’s energy policy due to the fact they allow electricity to be generated, diversifying the energy grid and contributing to sustainable energy security.

In August 2014, secondary legislation on energy reform was published, which included the creation and amendment of 21 laws. For the electricity sector, four elements can be highlighted that will provide a driving force for clean energy.

First, the new Electric Industry Law establishes the obligation to create a wholesale electricity market, with the aim of achieving competency in generation to ensure that the electricity tariffs are more competitive so as to benefit consumers. Second, the obligation of having a minimum percentage of clean energies, via the so-called Clean Energy Certificates, thereby guaranteeing that the country’s generation portfolio achieves the target established for 2024, “35% of generation from non-fossil resources”. Third, to guarantee the correct operation of the market and the compliance of the clean generation portfolio, the energy reform also established the creation of an independent system operator. Finally, to promote a resource of which Mexico has an extraordinary reserve, a specific law was designed to promote and develop geothermal energy.

Leonardo Beltrán Rodríguez
Under-Secretary for Planning and Energy Transition of the Secretariat for Energy (SENER)

Article published in: FuturENERGY January-February 2015

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INDUSTRIA-Y-ENERGÍA--EL-ENCUENTRO-NECESARIO

Now that the government has finally decided to tackle a plan to re-industrialize the Spanish economy – a great opportunity to create jobs – and the regions are also directing their efforts at maintaining their industry and strengthening their investments and associated jobs, this is the time to create a dialogue to restore confidence in Spain’s energy and industrial policy binomial.


This dialogue is essential to combine the visions of energy-intensive industry and of electricity and thermal power consumption.It is time the views of both the government and the energy sector – which is also industry – came together through agreement, effort and synergy to create jobs and position Spain in the leaders’ group on the European energy and industry agenda.

The challenges this country faces in energy match European ones: energy efficiency, the internal market, infrastructure, renewables and their effect on foreign policy, and the experiences, potential and vision of Spain all converge and are attributed value “within and along with” the European Union.

Our industrial competitiveness and energy situation is nothing to write home about -even the short-term figures. The lack of business confidence, the regulatory uncertainty and the weakness after years of crisis, must urge us to reconsider, because there is still a long way to go and mistakes and hesitation leave a trail of industry closures and unemployment.

Article published in: FuturENERGY May 2014

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The chaotic path of electricity reform has led to the seriousness of eliminating energy savings being overlooked, as one of the pillars of energy policy in an economy such as Spain’s, with the greatest energy dependence and most energy-intense in the EU. The adoption of new tolls in the energy bill and for home consumption is a penalty on energy saving, and through the desire to ensure short-term revenues for the electricity system new barriers have been put up to reducing energy costs and the viability of financing investments in energy efficiency.

The latest reports by the regulators (CNE and CNC) and the statements of prominent members of the European Parliament have criticized how the government reform forgets commitments under Directive 2012/27/UE on energy efficiency.

The European Commission reiterates these in a communication dated 6 November, 2013 reaffirming that Europe cannot afford to waste energy and that energy efficiency is a priority for guaranteeing supply and competitiveness.

Article published in: FuturENERGY March 2014

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LA COGENERACIÓN Y LA REFORMA ENERGÉTICA ESPAÑOLA

2013 together with 2012 will go down in the history of Spanish energy as the worst since 1980, due to the absence of an energy policy which allows any activity at all in the sector. Both renewable energies and CHP were crushed by Royal Decree 1/2012 passed on 27th January 2012 which introduced a moratorium on all ongoing activity.

From that moment on in 2012 no movements were to be seen on the part of the energy ministry until the middle of 2013. That meant 18 months of inactivity and disinformation which have paralysed the entire industry working in special regime facilities in Spain. The justification for this shut down in activity was based on the enormous tariff deficit shown by the system (since 1997) and its significant overcapacity.

The Government’s Economic Advisor, Mr. Álvaro Nadal, described the sector situation to spokespeople from Cogen Spain as: “Not one more MW can fit in the system, and not one euro more can be spent on supporting electricity production”.

Article published in: FuturENERGY January-February 2014

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Madridejos Wind Farm. Cristina Martin. WWF

On 10th January WWF published its annual Electricity Observatory for 2013. For the organisation, 2013 has been a year in which energy has made definite steps in the wrong direction as a result of the new law regulating the electricity sector, the energy reform and the imminent increase in January by 2.3% of the electricity bill. In 2013 renewable energies continued to be penalised with various laws.

The most recent is the one on the electricity sector, approved on 26th December which, with the pretext of reducing the tariff deficit, has put the brakes on renewable energies and self-consumption. Nevertheless, WWF believes that this law is not going to solve this problem, since this year the tariff deficit will go back to being between €4.5 and 5 billion.

This new law will continue to bring new hikes in the electricity bill for everyone, such as the 2.3% increase in January which is the result, among other things, of the inflationist nature of the auctions which set the price of electricity, the subsidies on coal, extra-peninsular costs, low demand for electricity and payments by capacity to gas plants.

Article published in: FuturENERGY January-February 2014

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