Review and experiences of price regulation regimes for district heating

Europe is facing a great technical and regulatory challenge in transitioning the energy supply from fossil fuels to sustainable renewables. Within the heating sector, the Heat Roadmap Europe studies has demonstrated large potentials and benefits from expanding district heating (DH) throughout the continent. However, as a monopoly structure, district heating grids require well thought-out regulatory regimes to be accepted by cities and consumers. Founded upon the approach of concrete institutional economics, this paper contributes to the literature on DH regulation by reviewing and describing regulatory experiences across Europe. The paper demonstrates that a wide range of regulatory mechanisms are available for implementing DH

Transitioning Island Energy Systems - Local Conditions, Development Phases and Renewable Energy Integration

Islands typically have sensitive energy systems depending on natural surroundings, but innovative technologies and the exploitation of renewable energy (RE) sources present opportunities like self-sufficiency, but also challenges, such as grid instability. Samsø, Orkney, and Madeira are in the transition to increase the RE share towards 100%—however, this is addressed in different ways depending on the local conditions and current development phases in the transition. Scenarios focusing on the short-term introduction of new technologies in the energy systems are presented, where the electricity sector is coupled with the other energy sectors. Here, both smart grid and sector-integrating solutions form an important part in the next 5–15 years. The scenarios are analyzed using the modeling tool EnergyPLAN, enabling a comparison of today’s reference scenarios with 2030 scenarios of higher RE share. By including three islands across Europe, different locations, development stages, and interconnection levels are analyzed. The analyses suggest that the various smart grid solutions play an important part in the transition; however, local conditions, sector integration, and balancing technologies even more so. Overall, the suggestions complement each other and pave the way to reach 100% RE integration for both islands and, potentially, other similar regions