The U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Forum was sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy and China’s National Development and Reform Commission. Rick Weston spoke on a panel that included Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to China, Xie Ji, Deputy Director-General of the NDRC, and Jennifer Matz, Director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Weston…

RAP was invited to join a select group of speakers to brief German journalists on emerging technical, political and market design issues for the Energiewende (“energy turn”) at a recent Berlin workshop hosted by the European Climate Foundation. Andreas Jahn, RAP’s senior associate based in Berlin, presented the reliability challenges and opportunities in this powerpoint overview. …

Richard Cowart, RAP principal and director of RAP’s European programmes was invited by the European Union’s Danish Presidency, as the only outside speaker, to address a special meeting of the EU’s Energy Ministers at the end of April 2012 in Horsens (DK). He delivered this presentation on global experiences with Efficiency Obligations, and design options…

RAP was invited to EPA Region 10 in Seattle to train staff on various energy and electricity topics, with an emphasis on how these topics have environmental benefits and impacts. This training is a continuation of EPA’s recognition of the inextricable links between energy and the environment. Cooperation and collaboration between regulators is important to…

This North American regional PEPDEE workshop on April 18-19 2012 was held in co-operation with US Department of Energy (DOE), hosted by the American Gas Association, and co-sponsored by the American Public Power Association, Edison Foundation/Institute for Electric Efficiency, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The workshop included…

One of the key market barriers to energy efficiency investments in homes and business is a widespread lack of knowledge about how inefficient buildings currently are and what could be done to improve their efficiency.  Such information could be particularly valuable at the time buildings are being sold or rented.  If the buyer or renter…

On February 16-17 2012, the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) hosted a meeting of the Licensing and Competition Committee, and Workshop on Regulatory Aspects of Smart Grid. The meetings were held in Gdansk, Poland. The event brought together regulators from a number of Central/Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Richard Cowart, RAP’s European Programmes Director,…

RAP Principal Meg Gottstein was invited to speak along with the President of Germany’s Federal Regulatory Agency, key German policy advisors and industry representatives at the “e-world-2012” conference in Essen on this pressing topic in Germany. Her presentation drawing on a case study of US forward capacity markets poses the question: “Should we be thinking…

RAP Principal Richard Cowart and RAP Advisor Chris Neme met in the morning with the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change and in the afternoon with three efficiency trade associations to discuss the concept of an energy efficiency feed-in-tariff (FiT). The concept is being considered within the UK government as a possible complement to…

The IEA and the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) in co-operation with UK DECC and the European Commission’s DG-Energy delivered an EU-focused workshop on Policies for Energy Provider Delivery of Energy Efficiency (PEPDEE) at the European Commission’s Charlemagne Building on 18-19 January 2012. This was one of several regional policy dialogues to be held as part…