The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), with the support of energy industry leaders, is challenging European policymakers to adopt a flexible and dynamic energy system to make the best use of innovative and distributed supply-and-demand options.
Signatories include members of the wind and solar energy industries, the Smart Energy Demand Coalition, the European paper and pulp association, the EU storage association, engine manufacturers, the gas industry, and standardization experts.
“Europe must rewrite the rules governing electricity markets so they fit the reality of how power is generated, managed and consumed in today’s energy system,” says Giles Dickson, CEO of EWEA. “Supply is getting more flexible and variable. Storage solutions are developing. And, there’s growing scope and interest in making demand more flexible.
“The energy system is now more complex to plan, control and balance. It needs enhanced flexibility, which requires significant changes in the relevant legislation,” adds Dickson. “The Commission has a golden opportunity with the market design proposals they’ll issue at the end of the year. They must seize it.”
The Group of Associations calls for the following three reforms:
- Providing adequate price signals and further integration of short-markets across borders;
- Ensuring a balanced approach to system adequacy that fully takes into account the contribution from the different energy sources; and
- Implementing a level playing field for all flexibility providers to foster the pan-European trading of electricity and grid support services.
The full list of signatories includes EWEA; Solar Power Europe; Gas Naturally; the European Association for Storage of Energy; Confederation of European Paper Industries; Smart Energy Demand Coalition; European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation; European Solar Thermal Electricity Association; EUROBAT; the European Building Automation Controls Association; and the European Engine Power Plants Association.
You can read the full letter here.
