CEO and President, Executive Committee of Elia System Operator, Belgium

Track A, Session 10

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Dobbeni is Chief Executive Officer and President of the Executive Committee of Elia System Operator s.a., the Belgian Transmission System Operator. He is also Chairman of the Belgian Power Exchange Belpex. He serves as President of Synergrid, the Belgian association of Transmission and Distribution System Operators for gas and electricity and was recently elected President of ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) that has become the single TSO association in Europe representing 42 TSO companies from 34 countries. Author of several publications, he has participated in several work groups and conferences in Europe and North America. During his career, he worked actively in several commissions for the Electric Power Research Institute, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as well as the EU R&D Esprit programs.

 

ABSTRACT SUMMARY

"Regional initiatives: a pragmatic and progressive process supporting market integration"

Generation and network infrastructure are long-lived facilities, which means that during their lifetime they propagate the economic conditions, technologies, policies and regulations that were in place at the time the investment decision was taken. In this context, the European Union and its Member States have put in place ambitious energy policies aiming to achieve for the whole of Europe a low-carbon and low-energy society that is secure, competitive and sustainable. As a matter of fact, removing legislative, regulation, trade and competition barriers and taking into account these new policies cannot be achieved overnight especially given the major differences observed between national electricity markets. Reducing this complexity is the major reason behind the seven regional initiatives. Transmission system operators are key players in this process given their role as market facilitators and operator of their national power system. Concrete results were delivered by TSOs, together with Power exchanges and Traders, in several regional markets and further integration is on the way. Further TSO work will be focused on pursuing these improvements and taking into account new challenges induced by the increasing share of renewable energy sources.