A new initiative to adapt to the challenges of the energy transition
Communication from RTE-EDF-EPEX SPOT-Total Direct Energie, partners of the CEEM
Paris, 16 July 2020.
The European Electricity Market Chair (CEEM) at the Paris Dauphine-PSL University and its Foundation is launching a new initiative with the aim of creating a European ecosystem of researchers in economics, interested in contributing to the regulation framework of our future power system. The Chair was created in 2012 and is supported by 4 major actors of the energy sector: RTE, EDF, EPEX SPOT and Total Direct Energy.
Since its creation, and thanks to the commitment of its partners and the Paris Dauphine team, numerous scientific papers have been published, regular seminars have been organized and number of PhD students have been completed their studies on power markets. After 8 years and a particularly dynamic change of the European power system, the Chair’s partners have agreed, along with its scientific director, Pr J-H Keppler, to adapt CEEM’s scientific model and governance. The goal is to reinforce the scope of the CEEM towards a scientific research centered around models and alternative research methods. In addition, this new organization will be more open to a variety of partners both in France and internationally. These new directions aim to tackle the various challenges the power system faces.
The energy transition will require significant upstream and downstream investments. An overhaul of the regulation framework—initially put in place in the 1990s and designed for the implementation of a single European power market—is now necessary. New concerns guide energy policies, including decarbonization, diversification of the electrical mix with renewables sources, final use electrification, and digitalization of economies, among others.
Challenges of prime concern include investment remuneration, transition paths toward 2050, adaptation of the management of electrical flows and the optimization between production and grid. Shedding light on these key topics in order to improve the design of the rules applied in the power sector will necessitate joint efforts of all stakeholders: academics, institutions and industries.
This new initiative aims to create an opened ecosystem of researchers and practitioners. Through facilitated exchange on key issues, a common diagnosis will be built from which individual or shared positions can be defined. This ecosystem aims at generating interest for researchers on these questions of industrial and institutional economy in the power system. For this work, they will have access to an integrated platform, in order to share their work and results in a European community open to industry partners.
The different funding models for investments have been identified as a primary area of research. From today until June 2021, the Chair will focus its research on developing a unified and coherent paradigm to analyze, in a consistent manner, the effects of different models of financing investments.
Beginning this summer, the CEEM core team will initiate a process of discussions to define more precisely the research topics. This will culminate in a seminar in November 2020 and a call for contributions. Research projects will be selected by a committee of associated researchers and partners. All contributors will be included in the proposed ecosystem so they can develop their projects and participate in the international seminar in June 2021. At this event, the partners of the Chair will take the opportunity to discuss their vision of the follow-up to this research with all other interested participants.