Market monitoring provides continuous surveillance and evaluation, like a protective screen or filter, crucial for well-informed decision making, cost efficiency, and ensuring stakeholder confidence in markets and resulting prices. In this policy brief, RAP identifies best practices that could be useful for the EU.

Wholesale electricity prices that reflect scarcity and surplus are pivotal to advancing demand response and storage and, as such, are a means to achieving a cost-effective transition to reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy. However, Europe’s power stakeholders cannot rely on wholesale prices reflecting system conditions—such as scarcity—in real time...

The lack of availability of charging stations is often cited as a major barrier to electric vehicle (EV) rollout. Yet charging points are just the "tip of the iceberg"—the power system needs fundamental reforms to maximize the benefits of EV integration. The European Commission's plan to revise carbon dioxide emissions standards for light-duty vehicles (LDV) re...

Speaking at an International Energy Agency workshop about their Smart Energy Systems Roadmap, Sarah Keay-Bright explored smart goals for using the smart grid. She encourages regulators to address the long-term requirements for smart grids, implement policies that reveal the value of consumer flexibility and energy efficiency, to effectively engage consumers, as w...

A responsive demand side is critical to the success of the integrated European electricity market (IEM) and, more particularly, to the cost-effective transition to a decarbonised electricity market. The intermittent nature of renewable technologies such as wind and PV makes ensuring a continuous energy balance more challenging and responsive demand can play a ...

The increase in electric vehicle charging is prompting discussions among utilities and regulators about not only grid impacts and best practices, but also about the role of the consumer. At the Eurelectric Seminar “Smart Charging: steering the change, driving the change,” Sarah Keay-Bright pinpoints three key considerations for effective consumer involvement:...

How and when plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) are recharged can dramatically affect the electric grid. As a result, regulation of the power sector could have a significant influence on the rate of EV rollout. This paper explores how regulation can be developed to minimise negative grid impacts, maximise grid benefits, and shrink the total ownership gap between EVs...

The European Union’s (EU) Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Directive (2009/31/EC) establishes a legal framework for the environmentally safe geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) to contribute to mitigating climate change. In March 2013, the European Commission launched a consultative Communication on the Future of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Europ...

Across Europe there is an increasing concern over rising energy prices and their impacts on industry, households, and national economies. Many believe that relaxing Europe’s commitment to a clean energy future is the only way to reduce energy costs. This study demonstrates that there is a better path: by focusing on the smart use of carbon revenues, instead of ...