Eero Ailio, Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission. Presented at Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015. For more information or to join the next event: http://crowdsourcingweek.com/

1. Delivering a new
deal for energy
consumers
Communication from the
Commission to the European
Parliament, the Council, the
European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of
the Regions
Crowdsourcing Week 22.10.2015
Eero Ailio, Dep Head of Unit Directorate-General for Energy

2. Energy Union Summer Package
 Market Design Initiative
 "New Deal" for Energy
Consumers including
 Best practices on
energy self-
consumption
 ETS reform
 Energy Labelling
2

3. Energy
New deal for Consumers – why?
Previous legislative packages opened up markets
• Competition, unbundling, regulatory oversight..
• Consumer protection, switching - traditional markets
Intermittency, technology, electrification changed game
• Need to better connect wholesale & supply vs retail & demand
• New services, products in open markets
Energy challenges to headlines
• Too big for supply to solve
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4. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
4
Wholesale-retail price disconnect
Falling wholesale prices…
…but rising retail prices.

5. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
5
Electricity
Postalservices
Mortgages
Gas
Customer satisfaction below average
DG SANCO Consumer Scoreboard 2014

6. Energy
Energy poverty

7. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
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New deal for consumers - Context
Energy Union "with citizens at its core, where citizens take
ownership of the energy transition, benefit from new technologies to
reduce their bills, [and] participate actively in the market"
Key obstacles at present:
• Lack of info on costs & consumption
• Limited transparency in offers
• Impediments to self-generation/self-consumption
• Low incentives for consumer action → poor competition
• Increasing network charges, taxes and levies
• Underdeveloped energy services and demand response
• Slow uptake of advanced technologies

8. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
8
Empowerment (1)
 Better information on opportunities to save money
– Frequent, reliable information on consumption, costs and
energy sources
– Transparent, competitive and comparable offers
– Rewards
 Wider choice of action:
– Simple, reliable switching
– Demand response, self consumption (best practice)
– Intermediaries, collective schemes/cooperatives

9. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
9
Empowerment (2)
 Updated consumer rights & protection
– Collaboration of competent authorities
– targeted protection of vulnerable and energy poor (social
policy/EE)

10. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
10
Smart homes and grids
• Enablers of energy transition, shift toward home
• Interoperable smart home appliances and components
• Fit-for-purpose smart metering
• Innovation-friendly, cost efficient and effective networks

11. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
11
Data
• Consumption, metering data 100% under consumer control
• Guarantee of privacy and data protection
• Neutrality of data access managers (competition)

12. Energy
EU guidance on self-consumption – why?
• Topic: thanks to cost-effective RES technologies, consumers can save money
by generating their RES energy and selling surplus electricity into the grid
• Objective: identify best practice for promoting cost-effective self-consumption
• Scope: micro and small-scale renewable energy (below 500 kW)
Example of daily self-consumption in an SME

13. 13
• The fight against climate change will not be
won or lost in diplomatic discussions in
Brussels or in Paris. It will be won or lost on
the ground and in the cities where most
Europeans live, work and use about 80% of all
the energy produced in Europe.
• Jean Claude Juncker

14. Source: Directorate-General for EnergySource: Directorate-General for Energy
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New: mitigation + adaptation+ access to energy, 2030

15. Energy
EU funding: Horizon 2020
• 16 B€ for research and development (2016-2017)
• Incl. 232 M€ for Smart and Sustainable Cities to better integrate environmental,
transport, energy and digital networks in EU's urban environments
•

16. Community energy initiatives, cooperatives
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17. European Crowd funding platform RES
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« Booking.com » RES marketplace
14 partners 11 countries

18. Energy
Thank you

19. Energy
• Consumers right to renewable energy self-consumption and
distributed storage
• Preference to be given to direct self-consumption over injection
into the grid of non-consumed renewable electricity
• Limiting net-metering schemes to phase-in periods and regular
review in a transparent and predictably way
• Avoidance of retroactive changes to existing self-consumption
projects to guarantee investment security.
• Tariff frameworks may be adjusted: result is higher fixed charge but
variable charge for fixed cost recovery retained for efficiency reasons
• Ensuring predictable conditions by announcing caps of installed
capacities after which grid cost exemption are revised.
• Giving the right market signals through variable tariffs
Selected best practices on self-consumption

20. Energy
Follow up of Consumer communication
Impact assesments together with Market Design initiative
• Further studies on market linking, access to variable prices and
enablers for consumer engagement and innovation
• MD consultation
Legislative work end 2016
• Linkages to EED and RED revisions 2016
Local community action
• Covenant of Mayors, Mayors Adapt, Smart Cities
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