Energy Economics Policy Seminars

On October 9, 2008, the second meeting of a new Seminar Series on Energy Economics Policy Issues, organized by the CPB, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, NMa and TILEC/Tilburg University, will take place.

The aim of the Seminars is to create a discussion platform for Dutch energy economists, and to bridge the gap between policy makers and academics. It intends to improve the economic foundation of the Dutch and European energy policy, and ensure that economic research is better aligned with the specific needs of the energy debate.

The topic for the second seminar is ¿European integration of Electricity Markets¿. The integration of the national electricity markets into one European market is an important policy goal of both national governments and the European Commission. Integration is believed to improve competition as well to create additional trade benefits. Despite many improvements in the interconnection, markets are still poorly linked to each other. In this seminar, we will discuss the pros and cons of several options for integrating electricity markets.

We are glad to have two experts in the field:

• Mette Bjørndal (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, NHH) is an internationally renowned expert on the design of energy markets. She is a professor in energy economics and operations management. She has published extensively on the design of electricity markets and also has given advice to regulators.

  Mette will talk about the lessons learned in the integrated Scandinavian electricity market, and see what we can learn for the Dutch situation. She discusses the benefits of close co-operation between the different system operators, and the incentives network operators might (not) have to co-operate.

• Boaz Moselle (The Brattle Group) is an economist specialized in the gas and electricity industries. He advises private and public sector clients on a range of competition, regulatory and strategic issues. He has been extensively involved in debates over the current energy ¿Third Package¿ of EU legislation. He was formerly a Managing Director of the UK energy regulator Ofgem.

  Boaz will talk about incentives for regional integration of markets, and the interrelation between market power and cross-border transmission capacity. What lessons can we draw from international experience (here and in North America), about designing effective institutions for regional integration? What is the relation between market power and investments in interconnection capacity? Should investment incentives in transmission capacity be set to reflect concerns about market power in the generation market?

After both lectures, discussants will kickoff the discussion. They will reflect on the issue of market power as well as the issue of incentive schemes. The first discussant is H. Martin Godfried, an economist at DG Competition of the European Commission. The second discussant is Andrea Korr of the German Federal Network Agency. She works at the section that regulates access to transmission systems and cross-border trade of electricity with a focus on developing congestion management methods at the German borders.

Programme (PDF)

Venue
Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit - NMa
Muzentoren - Room 4.20
Wijnhaven 24
Den Haag

Directions on www.nmanet.nl

Organizers
Machiel Mulder, NMa - Netherlands Competition Authority
Gijsbert Zwart, CPB - Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis
Sybren Hornstra, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Bert Willems, TILEC - Tilburg University

Registration
Registration is not possible anymore.

Remark
To enable free discussions, the Chatham-House rule applies to this Seminar: "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".

TILEC¿s contribution to the conference has been facilitated by financial support of Essent.

For more information about TILEC's energy research check the website http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/tilec/energy/