ESRI Research Seminar: "Energy policy - what happens next?"

Speaker: Professor Dieter Helm, University of Oxford
Venue: ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2

In the short term, energy policy in Britain and in Europe is in considerable flux. In Britain the capacity gap is very tight, nuclear is in considerable disarray, and the new capacity mechanisms are unproven. In Europe, there are potential directives implementing the 2030 climate change package (on the carbon targets and the national allocations, on renewables targets and on energy efficiency), on market design as members create their own capacity mechanisms, and on governance of the Energy Union. Then there is BREXIT.

In the medium term, the oil and gas prices falls as the great commodity super cycle collapsed are yet to fully play out, and the balance between Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, and US shale have yet to reach a balance.

In the medium to longer term, the growing dominance of electricity, supporting the digitalised economies, and the rise of zero marginal cost generation, batteries and smart technologies, are part of a fundamental transformation of the markets.

This presentation will review these developments, and set out how energy policy should respond - and also how it may in fact respond.

Professor Dieter Helm

Dieter is an economist specialising in utilities, infrastructure, regulation and the environment, and concentrating on the energy, water, communications and transport sectors primarily in Britain and Europe.  Dieter is an Official Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford and Professorial Research Fellow of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. Yale University Press published the revised edition of his recent book - The Carbon Crunch, in 2015.

Download presentation here.