WEC's Bi-Monthly Commentary on Energy Issues, 1 April 2009

WELCOME TO CHRISTOPH FREI

This is my last EnergyFax as Acting Secretary General because today, I hand over to the new WEC Secretary General, Christoph Frei. It has been a pleasure to work with the WEC members, officers and staff during the past few months, and I thank all of you for your support.
I know Christoph is looking forward to meeting the WEC family, and I am sure you will extend to him the usual warm WEC welcome. I, along with WEC Chairman Pierre Gadonneix, the officers and the London office senior staff, will be working with Christoph on a travel schedule that will get him "on the road" as soon as possible to meet the WEC members, Patrons and partners. If you have specific events you would like him to attend, please email Deborah Best (best@worldenergy.org).

2009 WEC Statement

The 2009 WEC Statement, "Building the New World Energy Order: The Energy Industry View: Promoting Long-Term Sustainable Development Objectives over Short-Term Economic Trends", will be published on the WEC website this week. Please check the homepage for a link to the Statement.

Montreal Congress Call for Papers Issued

The Call for Papers for the 21st World Energy Congress, which will be held in Montreal from 12-16 September, 2010, has been issued. The deadline for submitting papers is 15 January, 2010. Guidelines and specifications for the papers, as well as other details of the paper submission, selection, presentation and publication process are available on the Montreal Congress website: www.wecmontreal2010.ca.

All papers received will be evaluated by an international Selection Committee based on their relevance to the topic and the Congress theme, quality of work and originality. Authors will be notified in April, 2010, if their paper has been accepted for presentation. Papers will be presented during a series of Issues Sessions, which will take place from Monday, 13 September to Thursday, 16 September. Each Issues Session will be focused on a specific issue related both to the overall Congress theme of Responding Now to Global Challenges - Energy in Transition for a Living Planet as well as to the "theme of the day". The daily themes and the relevant issues to be covered on that day include:

Day 1:  Managing the growing energy demand (Facing demand surges in developing countries; Eradicating energy poverty: Energy for mega cities; Geopolitics, prices and markets; Secure, efficient and clean energy systems across borders; Managing supply infrastructure; Energy production and distribution bottlenecks)

Day 2:  What is the right energy mix for long term stability? (Energy resources and technologies today and tomorrow; Challenges of efficient, clean production and supply of fossil fuels; Nuclear power renaissance or demise?; Renewable and alternative energies in the global energy mix; Energy efficiency - a new energy source)

Day 3:  Energy solutions for a living planet (Managing and assessing the environmental impact of energy production; Raising public awareness and involving the public in decision-making; Road map to efficient energy policies; Energy efficient urban systems; Energy for transportation)

Day 4:  Policies, regulations and financing  (Balancing the need for energy, food, natural resources and the environment; Developing new energy strategies through international cooperation; Sharing expertise: examples of successful initiatives in technology transfer; Investing in transition: risks and rewards)

An innovation for the Montreal Congress will be the introduction of "Issues Sessions", which will be based on invited papers from well known, high level experts as well as on those papers selected from those submitted in response to the Call for Papers.

If you have questions, please visit the Congress website (www.wecmontral2010.ca), email wecmontreal2010@ipdl.com, telephone (+1) 514 287 9898, ext 340 or fax (+1) 514 287 1248.
 

Workshop on Power Plant Performance Held in Cairo

At the invitation of the WEC Egyptian Member Committee and the Ministry of Electricity and Energy of Egypt, the WEC Committee on the Performance of Generating Plant (PGP), together with the Egyptian hosts, organised a workshop in Cairo on 18 March. The workshop was attended by 115 experts from Egypt and neighbouring countries.

High quality presentations addressing a wide range of topics stimulated a lively discussion and exchange of views. The presentations covered such issues as the energy situation in Egypt, power plant performance measuring and benchmarking, plant availability statistics collection and use, trends and outlook for renewable energy in power generation, nuclear generating plant and technology transfer.

The next day, the PGP Committee met and then visited the Zafarana Wind Farm. The visit was organised by the Egyptian hosts. The Zafarana wind farm, with installed capacity of 360MW, is located in the Suez Gulf area and currently comprises 482 wind turbines of different technologies and capacities. A further 120MW of capacity is being commissioned. The construction at Zafarana began in 2001 and proceeded in stages in cooperation with Danish, German, Japanese and Spanish companies and with support from their respective governments. It is worth mentioning that about 80MW of the total capacity has been operated and maintained by the private sector for more than five years.

Over the last few years, Egypt has become the leader in wind power in the Middle East and Africa. The country is endowed with high-quality wind energy resources, particularly in the coastal areas. Several locations have already been earmarked for future wind energy projects, mainly in the Gulf of Suez.

Last year, the Supreme Council of Energy of Egypt, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, approved an ambitious plan for future development of renewable energy. The plan foresees that by 2020, 20% of the total electricity generated in Egypt will come from renewables, including 12% from wind energy. This means that in ten years, there will be about 7,200MW of grid-connected wind farms, and approximately 600MW of wind power will be commissioned each year.
Presentations from the PGP workshop are available at
http://www.worldenergy.org/work_programme/technical_programme/
technical_committees/performance_of_generating_plant/792.asp

Italian Member Committee Hosts Energy Event

On 19 March, the Italian Member Committee hosted an all-day energy event at the Palazzo Capranica in Rome. The event attracted 200 participants, including representatives from the Italian energy industry, media and government.

The first part of the day focused on the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2008, which was presented by Fatih Birol, Chief Economist and Head of the Economic Analysis Division of the IEA. Following Dr. Birol's presentation, Italian Minister for Economic Development Claudio Scajola spoke, after which a roundtable discussion on the Impact of the financial crisis on energy took place. Roundtable panellists consisted of prominent representatives from Italian institutions, industry, finance and international companies.

Croatia Energy Day Call for Papers

A Call for Papers has just been sent out by the Croatian Energy Association/WEC for their upcoming Energy Day, which will take place on 20 November in Zagreb. The theme will be "Quo Vadis Energy in Times of Climate Change", and the event will focus on seven "sub-themes", including long-term goals of emissions reduction and their impact on the development of production and consumption of energy; technological development in the function of long-term goals of climate preservation; prices of energy and their impact on implementation of long-term policy; security of supply; development of markets; and political dimensions of climate preservation and energy sector development

The deadline for registration of papers is 15 July. For further details of paper specifications, guidelines and submission procedures or for information on Croatian Energy Day, please contact WEC Croatia Secretary Dr. Branka Jelavic: bjelavic@eihp.hr or call +385 1 63 26 117 or +385 1 60 40 609.

Kieran O'Brien    
Acting Secretary General
World Energy Council     
5th Floor, Regency House,
1-4 Warwick St.
LONDON W1B 5LT
TEL:  (+44 20) 7734 5996