Garrett Blaney on SEM Market Integration Project
Channel: IIEA
Date: 02/03/2012

Creating a European Internal Energy Market by 2014 - Challenges and Opportunities for Ireland and Europe

About the Seminar:

The creation of  a genuine internal market for energy is one of the European Union's priority objectives. A market that allowed gas and electricity to flow freely throughout the EU would provide cost and choice benefits for consumers as well as increasing market access for suppliers, including producers of small-scale and renewable forms of energy.

This seminar will explore what needs to be done to establish such a market by 2014, the target set by the European Commission and Council.

A focus of the seminar will be Ireland's Single Electricity Market (SEM) -- a wholesale market operating in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. As Ireland's SEM operates with dual currencies and in multiple jurisdictions, it is a useful case study when considering the challenges of creating an EU-wide market.

Speakers will offer perspectives from Brussels, the UK and Ireland on what needs to be done between now and 2014, on the development of the SEM, on the construction and operation of the East-West Interconnector between Ireland and the UK, and on the ways in which the benefits of new and existing interconnectors can be maximised.

About the Speakers:

Speakers will include:

-      Jean Arnaud Vinois, Acting Director of the Internal Energy Market Directorate at the European Commission 

-      Daniel Dobbeni, President of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity

-      Garrett Blaney, Commissioner at the Commission for Energy Regulation

-      Dermot Byrne, Chief Executive of EirGrid

-     Alison Kay, Commercial Director of Transmission at National Grid, UK