On December 12th, RAP senior associate Andreas Jahn spoke at an open session on energy market reform held by the Green Party at the Federal Parliament building in Berlin. In this technical forum on the role of capacity markets in facilitating the Energiewende, or transition to renewable energy sources, Mr. Jahn addressed more than 130 participants, along with speakers Baerbel Hoehn and Oliver Krischer of the Green Party,  Dr. Felix Matthes, RAP Senior Advisor and research coordinator for energy and climate policy at the Öko Institut, and Dr. Christoph Maurer, Managing Director of the energy consulting firm Consentec GmbH.

The speakers explored the need to invest in energy market structures that accommodate and incentivize an increased volume of renewable resources. Given this new resource paradigm, the utilities are faced with the challenge of finding the right mix of flexible capacities to cover residual demand. In his presentation, Mr. Jahn discussed the experience in the United States with developing the potential for highly reliable and low-cost demand side resources in competitive markets. He also described design options for an apportioned capacity market, which could be coupled with an enhanced services market, and the resulting impacts on the coupled European energy markets.

More information on this event can be found on Mr. Krischer’s Green Parliamentary Group website.