Energia 1.2019: index and abstracts

Alberto Clô introduces Energia 1.19
(Presentazione)

COMMENT

Back-to-front Robin Hood? Energy transition and environmental justice (pp. 6-9)
(Robin Hood alla rovescia? Transizione energetica e giustizia ambientale)
di Luigi Pellizzoni (Università di Pisa)

How can effective environmental policies of wide and lasting breath be achieved without these being the cause (real or perceived) of social injustice? What is the “Back-to-front Robin Hood” effect? Why Environmental Justice is important to face the energy transition?

SCENARIOS

The macroeconomic scenario 2019-2020 (pp. 10-14)
(Lo scenario macroeconomico 2019-2020)
di Sergio De Nardis (Luiss School of European Political Economy)

The current economic cycle has reached ten-year of expansion in 2018. At this point, the coming, soon or later, of a recession is a possibility that should be taken into account. Especially, in light of the economic slowdown signals recorded last year. There are many elements of risk: the tariff wars, the evolution of the Chinese economy, the dynamics of the oil prices, the weakening of the euro against the dollar. The article draws the 2019-2020 macroeconomic scenario analysing the slowdown of the world expansion, it focuses on the Italian braking and concludes by questioning the adequacy of economic policies in case of further deterioration.

ENERGY POLICY

National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate: among institutional arrangements, sharing, credibility (pp. 16-21)
(PNIEC tra assetti istituzionali, condivisione, credibilità della politica)
di Alberto Clô (Direttore Responsabile «Energia»)

The National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate is the third strategic document in just five years. A fact that creates a credibility vulnus, even worsened by the reversal of what was previously strategic. Like those before, the PNIEC puts its entire attention on «what to do», completely neglecting the «how». It ignores some crucial issues, such as the profound institutional changes occurred in our energy system or how to tackle with the social acceptability of the proposals. This article aims at responding to certain priorities related to the «how to do».

The oil downstream beyond 2030 (pp. 22-28)
(Il downstream petrolifero oltre il 2030)
di Marco D’Aloisi (Responsabile Relazioni Esterne Unione Petrolifera)

The environmental targets of the Italian «National Energy and Climate Plan» pose an important challenge to the energy industry. However, those targets should be evaluated within the international energy scenarios for the next years, where especially Europe is expected to count less and less in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The achievement of the targets should avoid harming social and industrial stability of the country and its competitiveness. Significant investments will be needed to adapt national production and distribution facilities. To 2030, 11 billion euros will be invested in the oil downstream sector to respond to the future demand. However, 2030 is not the final goal, but an intermediate step towards 2050 decarbonisation targets, which must not find us unprepared.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE

The return of the public enterprise: risk or opportunity? (pp. 30-35)
(Il ritorno dell’impresa pubblica: rischio o opportunità?)
di Stefano Clô (Università degli Studi di Firenze e Comitato Scientifico «Energia»)

Over the last decade, several public services privatized during 1980’s and 1990’s returned to public ownership. What reasons led government in several part of the world to look at public management again? Today’s State Owned Enterprises can still carry old risks while opening new windows of opportunity. What makes the difference is mainly the quality of the institutions which control public utilities, a governance structure and an accountability systems, public-private joint participation in their management needed to pursue both economic and social goals.

The return of question of property? Energy cooperatives and remunicipalisation in Germany’s energy transition (pp. 36-42)
(Nuove forme organizzative locali nell’«Energiewende»)
di Sören Becker (Dipartimento di Geografia, Università di Bonn e IRI – Transformation of Human-nvironment Systems, Università Humboldt di Berlino)

Germany has been internationally accredited as a pioneering country when it comes to the generation of energy from renewable sources. What appears as a technological transition at first sight, however, is rooted in political processes, transforming both the regulation of energy systems and the energy politics on a local and regional level. The case of Germany is hence instructive for understanding energy transitions from the vantage point of political and social relations. This article focuses on the transformation of ownership patterns as a significant change in the course of Germany energy transition.

POWER

Four principles to prosper in the utility sector (pp. 44-48)
(Una strategia efficace per il futuro delle utility)
di Tiziano Bruno (Associate Partner, McKinsey – Milano)
David Frankel (Partner, McKinsey – Los Angeles)
Sébastien Léger (Partner, McKinsey – Parigi)
Antonio Volpin (Senior Partner, McKinsey – Singapore)

Over the past decade, many utilities have lost value or posted below-average returns. The electricity demand is expected to increase faster than any other kind of energy in next decades, due to economic growth of developing countries and the electrification of final energy demand, specifically in transportation and heating. Utilities are so facing another period of massive change, characterized by both substantial risks and considerable opportunities, and large new investments will be needed to keep up. This article provides four principles to prosper in the utility sector. If utilities do not act decisively, they will face significant and possibly existential risks.

The Italian Capacity Market: Critical Review and Open Questions (pp. 50-59)
(Il «nuovo» Capacity Market italiano: analisi critica e sviluppi recenti)
di Paolo Mastropietro (Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas),
Fulvio Fontini (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Aziendali, Università di Padova)
Pablo Rodilla (Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas)
Carlos Batlle (MIT Energy Initiative e Florence School of Regulation)

The Italian Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) has recently been approved by the European Commission. This article presents a brief summary of the regulatory evolution that resulted in the current proposal, provides an in-depth description of the mechanism based on its main design elements, and finally puts forward a critical analysis focusing on European guidelines. Many valuable lessons can be extracted from the Italian experience to shed light on other similar processes currently under development in other European countries.

Here the complete Italian index

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