On 23 January, Prague welcomed Hans ten Berge, the Secretary General of EURELECTRIC, who gave a presentation on power for a competitive Europe. He compared the journey to achieve EU energy objectives, namely cost-effective decarbonisation by 2050, a competitive Europe underpinned by sustained economic growth, and energy innovation, to the start of a marathon.
He emphasised that EU energy and climate policies should provide direction by enabling a consistent and stable framework, ensuring a favorable investment
climate (€1 trillion), setting out core objectives (not necessarily policy instruments!) and taking a systemic approach: from customers to generation to grid companies. However, in his opinion the run is not going smoothly due to the fact that lowcarbon
transition is more costly than it needs to be, and although wholesale prices are stable, prices for households and business are skyrocketing, the value of power companies is deteriorating, and political and regulatory uncertainty is hampering
investment.
EURELECTRIC offers an antidote for these setbacks in the newly published Manifesto, which gives runners direction and an energy boost through out. It advises them to pursue decarbonisation via a strong GHG reduction target (binding 2030 GHG reduction of at least 40%) and ETS reform (the ETS annual linear reduction factor should increase from -1.74% to -2.3% before 2020, assuming no set-aside), by promoting the use of electricity in transport, heating and cooling, by integrating RES into the market and securing supply through competitiveness
and innovation, and by empowering our customers (e.g., by transparent bills for customers, removing regulated prices, and developing a smart market model by 2020 and smart network regulation for cost-effective network investments).
The Manifesto will be published at EURELECTRIC.org shortly.