Regulating Energy Networks to facilitate the Transition in the Energy Industry
Dr Machiel Mulder, Netherlands Competition Authority NMa The growing attention for the environmental effects of using (fossil) energy calls for an evaluation of current regulatory regimes. In the past, regulation of the electricity and gas networks was mainly meant to foster competition and improve efficiency, which would result in lower prices for energy users. Now, regulation also has to facilitate the process of decarbonisation. In order to deal, for instance, with the growing significance of distributed generation, distribution network operators have to upgrade their network. In principle operators have two technological options for upgrading. The first one is extending the grid, making the grid sufficiently large to facilitate both peak demand and peak supply to the grid. The other option is making the existing grid smarter, which mainly means the use of information technology to optimize the use of the grid. The key question now is whether the existing regulatory frameworks are designed to enable these type of developments. In this paper we assess to which extent the current regulation in the Netherlands is able to facilitate the transition of Read more…
Categories: Academic Papers, Energy and environment, Energy policy, Finance and investment
Tags: Distributed energy, Energy in a Low carbon economy Europe, Grid, Networks, Power Generation conference 2010, Regulation, Smart Grid, Smart meters
Regulating Energy Networks - Paper.pdf 211.04 KBRegulating Energy Networks - Presentation.pdf 450.67 KBSep
2010