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Incisive commentary from RAP experts
RAP experts keep their finger on the pulse of the energy sector and provide timely analysis of topics impacting stakeholders TODAY.
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July 17, 2023
How to reap the benefits of district heating? Make it local
The city of Groningen in the Netherlands has long been home to Europe’s largest fossil gas field. As fossil fuel production winds down, city authorities are looking for alternative residential and commercial heat sources. One of the solutions they found… View Summary +
May 23, 2011
Modeling a More Efficient Power Plant
In 2003, RAP first developed the concept of the efficiency power plant (EPP), a set of integrated energy efficiency programs whose savings mirror the output of a conventional power plant. Since then, we’ve worked with our Chinese partners to further… View Summary +
February 8, 2012
Beyond Capacity Markets: Delivering Capability Resources to Europe’s Decarbonising Power System
Delivering a reliable power supply to consumers has always been a central objective of power market design and various solutions to this challenge have been adopted in Europe and elsewhere. In the context of wholesale power markets, these solutions have… View Summary +
October 16, 2014
Securing the Social License to Transform Power Sector Regulation
I recently participated in a conversation with North American regulation experts organized by University of Calgary professor and former California Energy Commissioner Michal Moore. The topic was the “social license” in energy regulation. What is the social… View Summary +
March 23, 2015
A New Framework for China’s Power Sector
- Max Dupuy ,
- Frederick Weston
The Chinese government has just finalized Deepening Reform of the Power Sector, a policy document co-signed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council. The Chinese media have anticipated this document for months,… View Summary +
July 2, 2015
Increasing Opportunities for Utility Delivery of DSM and Energy Efficiency in China
- David Crossley
In several jurisdictions around the world, electric utilities employ end-use energy efficiency as a resource in meeting their customers’ needs for energy services. Energy efficiency is seen as a cost-effective alternative to investing in supply-side resources, such… View Summary +
October 5, 2015
Finding the Sweet Spot for Natural Gas Investment
Natural gas is an important part of our low-carbon future, but finding the “sweet spot” for gas investment is not easy. Too much investment in gas pipeline infrastructure and gas generation is risky. Gas pipeline and generation investments are long… View Summary +
December 16, 2015
Power Sector Modernisation and Market Design in Poland
The Polish power sector is at a pivotal moment. It faces a number of challenges stemming from the profile of its power system, rising demand for power during summer peaks, and increasing penetration of renewable resources on the system. Its… View Summary +
March 18, 2016
Capacity, Competition, and Consumers Top RAP’s List of Missing Market Priorities
The European Commission’s Market Design Initiative (MDI) rightly identifies investment and security of supply, demand-side participation in markets, and market governance as three central pillars of a successful market reform. In framing the initiative’s priorities, however, the Commission has neglected… View Summary +
October 30, 2015
Emissions Trading in RGGI: What Does it Mean for China?
China launched seven pilot emissions trading systems (ETS) in 2013, as testing grounds for a national ETS. With the Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change, China confirmed its plan to launch a national ETS in 2017, and… View Summary +