• Lessons from America Series:  A quick link to all 8 blogs – Lets not be so parochial in GB

    August 4, 2014

    Lessons from America Series:  A quick link to all 8 blogs – Lets not be so parochial in GB

    A quick link to all 8 blogs: Lets not be so parochial in GB Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 4th August, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell Europe’s 500 million (m) population dwarfs the US’s 320 m but the US, with its 50 States, has a far bigger pool of differing energy regulatory situations to experiment and learn from than Europe’s 25 countries; and the States have a far longer history of working together than Europe does. American, or specifically the USA (as opposed to Canadian or South American) energy regulation is, at first sight, very different from that in

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  • Lessons from America: Capacity market details and demand side response

    August 1, 2014

    Lessons from America: Capacity market details and demand side response

    Capacity market details and demand side response Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 1st August, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell Back in 2010, the UK Government announced an Electricity Market Reform (EMR) which was to transform the GB electricity system into one fit for the 21st Century. One of the four main planks of EMR is a capacity market (CM). It was argued that such a CM was necessary (1) in order to stimulate sufficient investment to ensure security of supply, and the Government’s original preferred option was a targeted strategic reserve mechanism (page 100, para 69). Since 2010,

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  • New Thinking Blog: Women and Energy

    July 28, 2014

    New Thinking Blog: Women and Energy

    Women and Energy Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 28th July, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell A recent Ernst and Young report has shown that only 4% of executive board members of the top 100 utility companies is female. Not only does the sector have minimal women, but it is also primarily older and white in character – with 60% of its management over 40. The report argues that this is worrying in terms of diversity of thinking given that the current big kit, centralised energy model is in the middle of fundamental disruptive change and needs new and

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  • New Thinking Blog: The Boundary of The CMA Energy Market Investigation

    July 24, 2014

    New Thinking Blog: The Boundary of The CMA Energy Market Investigation

    The Boundary of The CMA Energy Market Investigation Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 24th July, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell The CMA has just announced the Statement of Issues for its Energy Market Investigation. Overall, it is a good document and explicitly invites parties to tell them, with reasons, if the issues they have identified should or should not be within scope, and if any issues have been missed. The submission deadline is 14 August 2014 – not great for some of us going on holiday in August – and should be sent to EnergyMarket@cma.gsi.gov.uk. As the Statement

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  • Submission to ECCC call for evidence on electricity demand-side measures

    July 18, 2014

    Submission to ECCC call for evidence on electricity demand-side measures

    University of Exeter Energy Policy Group response to ECCC call for evidence on electricity demand-side measures Submitted by (alphabetically): Richard Hoggett, Matthew Lockwood, Catherine Mitchell and Tom Steward – Energy Policy Group, University of Exeter. 9th July 2014 We welcome the opportunity to submit evidence to the inquiry. As the inquiry particulars set out, reduction in demand can be temporary (known as demand-side response (DSR)) or permanent (known as electricity demand reduction (EDR). We use this nomenclature throughout this response. We have primarily directed our responses to three main questions set out in the terms of reference. Overall, our view is that the

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  • Lessons from America: is the US form of ‘decoupling’ transferable to GB?

    July 18, 2014

    Lessons from America: is the US form of ‘decoupling’ transferable to GB?

    Is the US form of ‘decoupling’ (ie breaking the link between energy saving and reduced revenues) transferable to GB? Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 18th July, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell There is an implicit incentive in traditional economic regulation which compels utilities (meaning the main components of energy systems (producers/generators, transmitters, distributors and retail / supply) to encourage consumption rather than to reduce energy use. Utilities make more money selling energy than they can when encouraging an efficient use of it. This is at odds with current energy policy and is sometimes known as the throughput incentive

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  • Letter in Response to Guardian Article: Price of Electricity could double over the next 20 years

    July 16, 2014

    Letter in Response to Guardian Article: Price of Electricity could double over the next 20 years

    National Grid’s high case scenario says the price of electricity could double over the next 20 years (Report, 10 July), which it could. But then again, it could halve. Predicting the future is more likely to be wrong than right. What we do know from evidence is that where there is a large percentages of electricity supplied from variable power sources (ie primarily wind and solar), peak electricity prices – the most expensive ones during the day and where companies make their profits – are falling rapidly, thereby bringing down the wholesale cost of electricity

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  • Presentation: Understanding the Politics of UK Sustainable Energy Transition: Governance and Outcomes

    July 14, 2014

    Presentation: Understanding the Politics of UK Sustainable Energy Transition: Governance and Outcomes

    Understanding the Politics of UK Sustainable Energy Transition: Governance and Outcomes From: Caroline Kuzemko To: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), June 2014 Outline: Initial IGov observations: High rate of governance changes (legal targets) but less sustainable energy system or market change Big 6 dominate market; high barriers to entry; renewable energy (4%) and efficiency slow to develop Fossil fuels dominate (increased coal) and subsidies continue… Innovation and Governance: a series of complex interactions mediate between governance changes and sustainable energy outcomes Download presentation: CK IASSBerlin

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  • Presentation: Climate Norm Creation and Interactions with Energy Governance

    July 14, 2014

    Presentation: Climate Norm Creation and Interactions with Energy Governance

    Climate Norm Creation and Interactions with Energy Governance From: Caroline Kuzemko To: BISA Annual Conference, Dublin, June 2014 Outline: Paper explores EU climate benchmarking: How and why benchmarks are constructed – both revealing some of the assumptions behind them and considering how these become embedded in climate and energy governance Compliance at the national level: (UK and Germany) – increasingly important but reveals complexities and tensions Climate governance interacts with energy policies and the specific ways in which this takes place has consequences for climate benchmarks Approach – broadly a constructivist IPE approach (institutions) Themes: Benchmarks as

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  • Presentation: UK Energy Governance: Change, Capacity and Interactions

    July 14, 2014

    Presentation: UK Energy Governance: Change, Capacity and Interactions

    UK Energy Governance: Change, Capacity and Interactions From: Caroline Kuzemko To: Inaugural Workshop of the Energy and Governance Group, Canterbury Christ Church University, June 2014 Outline: UK Energy Governance: High Quantity of Changes (2000s) Type, Scale and Timing Complexity of Change: multiple drivers and framings of energy 4 Key Problematiques…   Download presentation: Canterbury-June

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