Work in Parliament COGEN Europe dinner debate
Synergy between the supply and demand sides sectors: how cogeneration and demand response program can contribute to the Energy Efficiency Directive.
Representatives from the micro-CHP community and the Smart Energy Demand Coalition spoke at the COGEN Europe dinner debate, hosted by Maria da Graça Carvalho, today in the European Parliament.
In her introductory remarks MEP Carvalho underlined the importance of the topic in the discussions on the draft Energy Efficiency Directive. Christophe Leroy, from BDR Thermea, explained that micro-CHP is a flexible and controllable player in the new smart grid low carbon electricity market offering services to the grid and the opportunity to bring a whole new group of citizens into a new relationship with the energy market.
Elaborating on the future energy system, Michael Colijn from WhisperGen talked about the partnering of high-efficiency micro-CHPs with renewables. He also stated that the market is at an early stage and needs more support from decision-makers. From Wärtsilä, Anders Ahnger built on the flexible power generation Europe that is in need today and showed how the intermittent electricity production from wind could - to a certain extent - be accommodated in a cost effective way with small or medium sized CHP (notably connected to district heating networks as in Denmark).
Speaking on behalf of the Smart Energy Demand Coalition, Jessica Stromback commented on the findings of the study they did on the main barriers encountered by demand response operators. In the most of the European countries, the national market design does not allow demand to have equal access to the electricity markets.
Finally during the Q&A session moderated by Pieter Verberne, AkzoNobel and Chairman of COGEN Europe, MEPs Maria da Graça Carvalho, Judith Merkies and Vittorio Prodi as well as Paul Hodson from the Commission had opportunities to exchanges with the speakers and the audience on the future of the EED. Stakeholders agreed that the timing is ideal to ensure an appropriate policy structure is designed to play its part in the success of Europe's climate and energy strategy and empowering Europe's citizens.
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