Check out the summit agenda...

DAY ONE -  4TH NOVEMBER - WEDNESDAY

09:00

KEYNOTE PANEL - THE LATEST PAN EUROPEAN REGULATORY CHANGES AND WHAT THEY MEAN FOR YOUR GRID INTEGRATION PROJECTS

Join top policy representatives from across Europe in a series of keynote debates on the latest regulatory changes impacting the various national electricity markets 

• Find out the latest developments across the EU helping to drive integration of renewables forward

• Outline common goals to ensure new technologies and infrastructures can be deployed to meet renewables targets

• Working with regulators: understand international regulations, the new directive and their impact on the transnational transmission of energy

• Get a crucial vision of the future: discuss incentives, directives & policies that are likely to be in place 5, 10, 15 years from now

Tahir Kapetanovic, Director Electricity, Energie-Control GmbH, Austrian Energy

Siobhan Carty, Director -European Strategy and Environment, OFGEM, UK

Yvonne Fredriksson, Director-General, Energy Markets Inspectorate, Sweden

Jon Sagen, Senior adviser, Energy and Regulation Department, Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE)

Venizelos Efthymiou, Network Development Projects Manager, Electricity Authority of Cyprus

Peter PLUG, Director, Office of Energy Regulation (Energiekamer), The Netherlands

Cathy Mannion, Director Electricity Networks and Retail, Commission for Energy Regulation, Ireland (CER)

10:00

POWER PANEL: WHICH RENEWABLE SOURCES ARE MOST RELIABLE AND MOST VIABLE?

A comprehensive assessment of the challenges and benefits of integrating various renewable energy sources

• Evaluate and compare viable sources of renewable energy across Europe – where each source is with respect to commercialisation, requirements for integration and timelines for further development

• An in depth analysis of risks involved in each renewable industry and solutions for risk management

• Benefit from specific analysis of technological needs,  and costs vs. benefits for each renewable type

• Understand the impact of market oriented feed-in tariffs and other market mechanisms governing renewable energy prices

Guy Vekemans, Project developer Smart Grids , VITO nv 

Francois Nguyen, Senior Policy Advisor - Electricity Markets, International Energy Agency

Antonella Battaglini, Founder, European Renewable Grid Initiative

10:30

COFFEE BREAK

11:00

CASE STUDIES: RESPOND and IMPROGRES: EU PROJECTS ASSESSING GRID INTEGRATION ISSUES

• Hear the results of some key EU projects on the integration of renewable energy – strategies, technologies and outcomes
• Identify efficient market response options that actively contribute to an efficient integration of RES in the European electricity system
• Gain insight into market failures & regulatory failures that hinder the electricity market to respond to the increase of RES-E and DG supply
• An overview of the policy/regulatory changes that needs to be in place to support future RES projects across Europe.

Frans Nieuwenhout, Senior Consultant "Regulation of networks and markets for DG & RES”, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN)

ECONOMICS OF INTEGRATION

11:30

Facilitating The cost effective grid integration of renewable generation

• Find out about the changes in fundamental economic performance of the transmission system driven by renewable generation

• Assess the need for a new grid operation and planning paradigm to make your investments more effective

• Hear about the challenges faced by the existing UK regulatory and commercial framework for grid access… and review investment options for the future

Goran Strbac, Professor of Electrical Energy Systems, Director of the UK Centre for Sustainable Electricity & Distributed Generation, Imperial College London

12:00

Reducing the impact costs of renewable energy on the transmission network

• Get expert advice on how to minimise financial leakages in grid improvement projects

• Dissect end-to-end costs in integrating renewables from the utilities perspective and find out how to reduce costs across the entire project

• What’s the real impact of renewables on your energy portfolio: and which power sources are most cost effective?

Peter Bedson, Managing Director, IPA Economics

12:30

FINANCING THE GRID: MARKET MECHANISMS, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & REGULATORY

INCENTIVES

An analysis of what large investments in grid updates and reinforcements could mean to the markets

• Get a clear overview of how the global economic crisis is affecting investments and ROI on grid developments, smart technologies and the integration of renewable energy

• Within the context of price regulation in the EU, discuss methods of gaining return on investments on technologies and grid upgrades

• What’s the role of regulation in driving change in the grid infrastructure across the continent?

 Lewis Dale, Regulatory Strategy Manager, National Grid

1:00

LUNCH BREAK

02:00

THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE ON GRID INTEGRATION of Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Resources

•  State of renewable integration in US Power Grids

• Overview of Federal and State policy initiatives for renewable integration

• The role of smart grid, energy storage and other enabling technologies in renewable integration

Lawrence E. Jones, Director, Strategy & Business Development, AREVA T&D Inc

02:30

A Vision to achieve 80% CO2 cuts with Renewable Electricity

• What support mechanisms will we need – Green Certificates or Feed in Tariffs?

• What will be the plant mix and how will variable generation impact?

• Will new transmission and HVDC superhighways be needed and viable?

• What do European grid events and blackouts tell us about the future management of grids?

• How dies experience on island systems inform high penetration renewables, smart grids and DSM?

Guy Nicholson, Strategy and Business Development Director, Senergy E-Connect

03:00

PRESENTATION ON THE RENEWABLE ENERGY GRID INITIATIVE

Antonella Battaglini, Founder, European Renewable Grid Initiative

03:30

The challenges of a large-scale offshore sustainable energy

• Harvesting the vast offshore energy resources asks for a drastic change in current practices

• Permitting, industrial development, shipping, and financing needs to be geared towards multi-billion investments in and a huge deployment of  technologies and infrastructure

• How can we organise this transition? Are industry and government objectives realistic?

David de Jager, Managing Consultant Renewable Energy, Ecofys Netherlands BV

4:00

COFFEE BREAK

04:30

WORKING GROUP DISCUSSION: In depth discussions with professionals across the values chain in groups of 10 to draw out action points

• Design & reliability criteria for connecting Renewable Energy Resources to the Transmission & Distribution systems, comparing conventional power stations.
• Considerations for limiting the total power of Wind Turbines or Solar panels connected to the same Distribution line.
• Measures to regulate the Voltage level near customers in the vicinity of Renewable Energy Resources (and keep the proper power quality).
• What kind of feasibility studies are done in order to connect Renewable Energy Resources, to the Transmission & Distribution systems, who does this studies, who pays for these studies, how much they cost and how long it takes to complete these studies?

05:30

FEEDBACK AND ACTION POINTS FROM THE WORKING GROUP DISCUSSIONS

06:00

Chairman Close - End of Day One

NETWORKING DRINKS

DAY TWO- 5TH NOVEMBER - THURSDAY

SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF VARIABLE OUTPUT

9:00

BALANCING POWER: TECHNOLOGY, ENERGY SOURCES AND MANAGEMENT

• Gain key insights on maintaining/improving grid reliability with transportable storage in the renewable energy integration mix
• Review the need and benefits of balancing power for variable output generation
• Evaluate  the viability and cost effectiveness of adding balancing power options to the offshore energy sources in your power portfolio

Mereille Schreurs, Consultant, KEMA

9:30

AN UPDATE ON THE INTELLIGENT ENERGY GRIDS PROJECT

• Hear the latest on the Intelligent Energy Grids project and ECN’s plans for the future of this initiative
• Learn how to accommodate a large share of intermittent and decentralized energy sources on your grid
• Discover how to achieve the transition to reliable, sustainable and cost-effective electricity grid using intelligent supply and demand management
• Find out about a key driver for rolling out innovative ICT solutions: incorporating large-scale renewable energy sources

Martin J.J. Scheepers, Programme manager "Intelligent Energy Grids", Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN)

10:00

The Impact of Intermittency for European electricity markets

• Hear the results of some ground breaking work on studying the impact of variable output of renewable energy on the European electricity markets
• Discuss the challenges posed for the market participants including the operators of fossil fuel plants, new entrants, interconnectors, and wind generators
• Highlight the implications of variable output on security of supply and market design
• Map out the opportunities that these challenges put forth for your business – identify the gaps in the market and how best to fill them

Stephen Woodhouse, Director, Pöyry Energy Consulting

MAXIMISING THE POTENTIAL OF EXISTING GRID ASSETS

10:30

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR DNOs – Communication services for smart grids

• Smart Metering - the first step towards a smart grid
• Future proof solutions - lessons from the telco industry
• Experiences gain from European reference projects

Ingo Schönberg, CEO, Power Plus Communications

11:00 COFFEE BREAk

11:30

STREAMLINE THE PLANNING PERMISSION PROCESS FOR NEW LINES AND REINFORCEMENT

• Get a top down approach to identify and plan for each stage of the planning process
• The role of energy regulators: compare different levels of regulation across Europe and their impact on costs and timescales for the approval of planning applications
• Find out why preparation is key: identify what supporting evidence you need to hand in to ensure a successful and smooth application process
• Learn about parallel consenting procedures and best practices to reduce waiting times

Dr. Urban Keussen, Member of the Executive Board, E-On Netz, GmbH

12:00

KEY STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY PART OF YOUR GRID

Existing T&D networks are nearing the end of their operational life and it is imperative to find ways to prolong the life of these assets and squeeze out as much efficiency as possible

• Review the need for getting relevant good quality data on your assets and ways to get that data
• Analyse and filter this data to rightly identify, prioritise and execute effective maintenance strategies
• The inside track on maintenance and inspection best practice to prevent incidents and failures
• Find out how data applications, technologies can help provide guidance and feed into key management policy and directives

Joe Corbett, Head of Asset Engineering, Mainstream renewables

POLICY, REGULATION AND LEGISLATION

12:30

ICTS and renewable ENERGY – making the grid more flexible

• Discover how ICTs can add value to the utility business in generation, transmission and distribution
• What role can smart technologies play in electricity networks; now and in the future
• What are their benefits for renewable energies from integrating ICTs
• How are utilities engaging with ICT companies world wide? And what lessons can be learned?
• Will technology become commonplace with utilities? What are the challenges if so?

Maher Chebbo, Vice President of Utilities Industry for EMEA, SAP

1:00 LUNCH BREAK

2:00

HOW TO ACCURATELY MEASURE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF YOUR GRID REINFORCEMENT PROJECTS BOTH PRE AND POST INSTALLATION

• Get techniques to reduce pre-installation waiting times to ensure that you hit your project deadlines
• Understand the post installation requirements of the consenting process to monitor results and assess ongoing environmental impacts
• Identify environmental consultants and other agencies that can work with you to collect data about the environmental conditions in your proposed sites

Matthias Haag, Chief Operating Officer, Aquamarine Power Ltd

2:30

CASE STUDY FROM AQUAMARINE POWER ON GRID INTEGRATION OF MARINE ENERGY

3:00

Chairman Close - End of CONFERENCE