Building Global Knowledge for the Energy Transition
Energy Transition via Partnerships (SDG 7 ↔ SDG 17)
by the FSR Global Team
Out of Africa
Recently, the Florence School of Regulation began the FSR Global initiative to take its experience in energy policy and regulation in the European Union to the world. Since then, the capacity building model of combining — policy dialogue, applied research and training has led to a wide variety of engagements across the globe. In this topic of the month, we introduce and highlight, region wise, some of the key initiatives beyond Europe, starting with Africa.
Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)
FSR collaborated with the IOC to facilitate sharing of knowledge on energy sector regulation, particularly on the deployment of renewables and provision of energy access. FSR collaborated with the islands of Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros for a period of 2 years, starting from training on ‘Regulation of the Power Sector’, ‘Regulation for Universal Access to Energy’ and concluding in a research report that provides a comprehensive overview of the regulatory setup in these islands.
Transition to a clean energy system in island nations requires special consideration given their inherent limitations in terms of their size and isolation. FSR Global, in collaboration with the Indian Ocean Commission, conducted a comparative study across four island nations: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. The study focused on two perspectives. The first perspective assesses how the islands are considering their peculiarities in their institutional, regulatory and power market design. The second perspective looks at the practices of each island for promoting and integrating renewables into their energy system and ensuring universal electricity access. We found that the institutional, regulatory and market design of each island has implications on reaching their renewable energy and electrification policy targets. Importantly, practices implemented in some islands can be considered for replication by other islands in the region and beyond.
Open Africa Power (OAP)
OAP is a cooperative program, created by Enel Foundation in partnership with academic partners in Italy and Africa. It aims to forge a new generation of African leaders deeply engaged with their countries’ clean energy future. As a key member of this cooperative, FSR is providing online training on ‘Regulation for Universal Access to Energy’, which is supplemented by residential training blocks provided by other consortium partners. The first edition in 2018 brought together 34 young African professionals from 9 countries. Following the success of the first edition, the on-going second edition is expanded to 60 young African professionals from 16 different nationalities.
During the online training module, OAP participants of the first edition were trained as part of a larger cohort consisting of participants from 33 countries.
Two to tango
Recently, the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) began the FSR Global initiative to take its experience in energy policy and regulation in the European Union to the world. Since then, the capacity building model of combining — policy dialogue, applied research and training has led to a wide variety of engagements across the globe. In this topic of the month, we introduce and highlight, region wise, some of the key initiatives beyond Europe. This time we are heading into Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
The FSR collaborated with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to initiate the dialogue on the need for state-of-the-art regulation in times of rapid innovation.
Report: Energy Regulation: The challenges and tools to prepare for the future in Latin American and the Caribbean
This discussion paper was developed by FSR to facilitate the workshop held on 27th and 28th September 2018, Washington DC. The objective of this workshop was to understand what are the key challenges that regulatory authorities are currently facing in LAC and what are the challenges expected for the next 15 years. Inputs from the workshop would be incorporated and presented via a report.
The report highlights the key regulatory challenges and current developments of four key areas affected by rapid innovation: sector coupling, electricity networks, batteries and electric mobility. Innovation will continue to challenge our regulatory frameworks in the coming years. Electricity regulators are waking up to this challenge and are experimenting with innovative regulatory tools to face this challenge. However, it is important to note that electricity systems of different country and region have their own unique set of challenges. Therefore, customised regulatory solutions would need to be developed based on the requirements of the implementing country or region.
The report will be published in a month. Stay tuned!
Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL)
The FSR signed an MoU with the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) to facilitate transcontinental knowledge exchange.
The performance of two ongoing regulatory frameworks for hydropower remuneration in Brazil is analysed. The first is the status quo design, where the individual operational risks are mitigated by a risk-sharing principle within a hydro pool structure. The second is an insurance approach, where a security framework enables the hydro generators to transfer their risks to the consumers. Three different long-term scenario settings are used to assess the two regulatory frameworks by using stochastic optimisation techniques. The results suggest that the level of risk in the status quo design strongly relies on the generation mix evolution, notably thermal, rather than wind or solar generation. The current insurance approach is likely to drive a transfer of wealth from consumers to generators. This condition can be overcome by adapting the insurance premium setting criteria.
Read the full working paper: Assessment of the current regulatory framework for hydropower remuneration in Brazil
Want to know more about this topic? Check out the new training on Regulatory Delivery
This online course combines theoretical and practical experience on how regulatory authorities are effectively delivering the outcomes of the regulation in times of market transition towards decentralisation, digitalisation, and decarbonisation. The participants will have a unique opportunity to learn how regulatory authorities should adjust and improve their governance to be able to operate effectively from a world-renowned faculty of experts. The course begins on 7 October 2019.
Namaste Asia
Recently, the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) began the FSR Global initiative to take its experience in energy policy and regulation in the European Union to the world. Since then, the capacity building model of combining — policy dialogue, applied research and training has led to a wide variety of engagements across the globe. In this topic of the month, we introduce and highlight, region wise, some of key initiatives beyond Europe. This time we are heading to Asia.
European Commission
FSR collaborated with the European Commission on various bilateral workshops to enhance knowledge transfer amongst European and international stakeholders.
6th EU-India Smart Grid Workshop, 19–22 November 2018
In collaboration with the European Commission and the Indian Smart Grid Forum.
Smart grid has been highlighted as a priority area of cooperation under the frame of the EU — India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership, adopted at 2016 EU-India Summit (30 March 2016 in Brussels). The Leaders’ Statement on Clean Energy and Climate, adopted at 2017 EU-India Summit (6 October 2017, Delhi) further emphasised the importance of continued cooperation on smart grids development and deployment.
Integration of electric storage (ES) and electric vehicles (EV) in smart grids
The global trend in electric mobility is seen as an opportunity for India to reduce its oil fuel import and improve the air quality of its cities. The workshop focused on the deployment and integration challenges of electric vehicles in India, given the new policy framework that targets new stock of vehicles to be electric come 2030. On electric storage, the policy is still under development and focused more on exchange of ideas amongst European and Indian stakeholders.
Regulation for enabling cost-effective integration of large shares of renewables
The workshop focused on the nuances of power sector regulation from both the EU and the Indian perspective. The theme of the day was developing regulations to integrate large shares of renewable energy cost-effectively. The topics addressed provided an introduction to the EU and India power sector and included lessons on network unbundling, tariffs of the future, regulation of innovative technologies in the electricity network industry and energy markets design.
EU-India Power Market Design Workshop — 14th March 2019
In collaboration with the European Commission and the Indian Smart Grid Forum.
The workshop aimed at facilitating exchange of experiences between the experts from EU and India on various aspects of the current power market design. Insights were provided on functioning of the day ahead, intra-day and balancing markets in India as well as Europe, where these market designs are highly evolved. Furthermore, the issue of ensuring long term security of supply during the energy transition was discussed. Finally, avenues for unlocking the potential energy storage, which is expected to play a key role in the future were examined.
EU — Japan LNG Workshop, 14–15 November 2017
In collaboration with the European Commission and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
International LNG markets are set for major change, with substantial new liquefaction capacity coming on stream in the period to 2020. Both Europe and Japan have published in 2016 a strategy for liquefied natural gas. For the EU, the current developments in the global LNG market offer an opportunity to let LNG play its full role in diversifying gas supplies to all EU member states and in enhancing the competitiveness in the internal gas market. For Japan, the world’s largest LNG importer, secure LNG supplies are strategically important.
Contractual Arrangements and Business Models for a Liquid and Flexible Global LNG Market
The workshop focused on flexibility in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sale and purchase agreements, including in the context of newer business models for trade in the global LNG market. Also discussed the ‘best practices’ with trading contracts and their flexibility arrangements and to build up confidence (also in legal terms) for their use.
Perusahaan Gas Negara
FSR conducted a workshop as part of a project to assist Perusahaan Gas Negara in analyzing and proposing potential solutions for the current regulatory challenges that Indonesia gas industry is facing. The objective of this workshop is to present case studies which may help to better understand Indonesia challenges and to find potential solutions by considering Indonesia specificities, but also its international experiences and challenges and how they were dealt with.
Upcoming research
Currently, FSR is undertaking a study on the regulatory and policy issues for large-scale integration of electric vehicles into the power system in India. The results of this research are expected to be published in summer 2019.
Stay tuned!
Check out our FSR Global page for comprehensive list of activities undertaken in the region.
