Georgia has over 2,000 km of main gas pipeline. INOGATE and the Georgian Gas Transportation Company (GGTC) are working together on a pilot project to moderise the metering and data processing systems vital for the effective management of Georgia’s gas grid. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition programme, named SCADA, is being applied to help the GGTC in its efforts to improve current gas metering systems and related procedures of gas transmission and to reduce gas losses significantly (technical and non-technical). An important aspect of the project is the goal to adopt cost-effective practices and ensure the long-term stability and accuracy of gas metering.

A baseline assessment before the pilot started found a discrepancy of between -2% and +6% between inflows and outflows of gas, evidence that significant volumes of gas were escaping. If the accuracy of gas meters can by improved 2%, 28,000 m3 of gas can be saved per day. At current gas prices, EUR 2,600 can be saved daily.

The European Commission is marking 20 years of energy cooperation with its eastern partners by holding a high-level conference, “EU Energy Cooperation with the Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia” in Brussels on 17 March 2016. This celebratory conference will also herald the beginning of a new stage in energy cooperation with the region. The event will be hosted by EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, Mr. Johannes Hahn.

The one-day event will bring together 200 participants, including high-level representatives from the EU, Partner Countries, international financial institutions, think tanks, the private sector and academia.

As energy is a crucial area of our cooperation, the event will provide the opportunity to reflect on what actions we can take together to address the questions of energy security, sustainability and investments. The purpose is to exchange views on energy sector developments in the EU, the Eastern Partnership countries and Central Asia. The event will also mark 20 fruitful years of cooperation in the framework of the INOGATE Programme (1996-2016).

An exhibition area will showcase the latest activities and opportunities in the energy sector’s of the Partner Countries.

Concluding remarks will be presented by Mr Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission Vice President of the Energy Union.

If you are interested to participate in this event, please visit the conference site to register: http://conference.inogate.org/ or contact the INOGATE Technical Secretariat at secretariat.kiev@inogate.org.  Please note that places are limited and will be attributed on a first-come first-served basis.

Next Energy Policy Talk in a series to address energy issues in Ukraine will take place on 19 February 2016 in Kiev. The talk will be hosted by the EU-funded programme INOGATE and will be opened by the Minister of Energy and Coal Industries, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, and senior figures from energy ministries and other related state agencies, as well as representatives of the EU Delegation and the European Commission.

Deregulation in the electricity industry aims to create an efficient trading process for the forces of competition as well as a market with a robust system of security and reliability. A competitive wholesale market follows three-way segmentation: unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution, as well as providing a centralised framework for an economical electricity service. This assumes a large number of competitors with no barriers to entry or exit.

Ukraine’s new Electricity Law will underpin electricity market reforms and provide a new electricity model consistent with the Third Energy Package which fulfils Ukraine’s Energy Community commitments. The EU new standardised electricity market model (regulated third party access; unbundling; opportunities for new generation, independent TSOs, DSOs and MOs; an open retail market and an independent regulator) is designed to create the procedures for the wholesale buying and selling of electricity, including a risk-minimising element due to electricity’s inability to be stored, in the form of different markets.

The key question is how this can be applied to Ukraine. Most cost savings are realised in the generation sector. As ownership of generation in Ukraine is a mix of state and private sector ownership and includes few players, will this limit competition and affect the effective workings of the market after July 2017 when the new market is operating? Both the regulator and the Antimonopoly Committee will have an important role to play in monitoring and enforcement.

How will liquidity in the market be increased and how quickly? What will happen to the existing debts in the current market? How will support for renewables and CHP be financed? How will support for the vulnerable be financed?

This Energy Policy Talk will propose the following questions for discussion:

• What conditions for structure of the market will be needed to establish a workable market model for a competitive wholesale electricity market?  What are the expected benefits and problems with the new electricity market model?

• What legal, policy, regulatory and other measures should be undertaken in the next 18 months by the Government to maximise the chances of a successful transition by the electricity industry into the new market model?  How quickly can this happen?

• What should be the future power generation mix? What will be the role of Renewable Energy Sources? Thermal power plants? How will these ongoing electricity reforms benefit Ukrainian and other consumers? How will prices develop? How will support to vulnerable consumers be financed?

Delegates from INOGATE Partner Countries (PCs) gathered together in Stockholm, Sweden from 9 to 11 February to learn more about the EU experience of Energy Performance Contracts (EPC) and how they can be applied in PCs.

The legal and procedural processes of both suppliers (ESCOs) and consumers (EPC procurement) were investigated to assist PCs in completing the requirements of their Energy Community Treaty (EnC) acquis, as well as providing a sound basis for greater energy efficiency in their countries.

Both EU representatives and delegates gave presentations with particular emphasis on the experience of the host country, Sweden. Swedish energy policy, legislative and institutional frameworks for ESCO and regulatory incentives for the development of ESCOS were described and discussed. A visit to the Swedish Energy Agency “Energimyndigheten” formed part of the two-day combined event. A recent EPC project implemented by the Lycksele Municipality in Sweden provided a window on the demand side with experts giving their work experiences in procuring and executing the EPC.

The Armenian and Moldovan participants analysed their ESCO situations and the lessons they can learn to overcome existing barriers for the implementation of EPC. These lessons will also benefit Georgia and Ukraine. Following the completion of this event, PC representatives continue with the development and implementation of EPC in their home countries.

On 25 February, Tbilisi, Georgia will an Energy Policy Talk which will provide the opportunity for parliamentarians, ministers, representatives of IFIs and donor organisations, the Regulator GNERC and other relevant energy organisations and NGOs working in the energy field to discuss how to improve Georgia’s electricity value chain – from production to consumption. The moderated discussion will consider electrical power supply (energy and system losses, capacity in generation, distribution and transmission) and grid support services (ancillary services, generator imbalance and dispatch); financial issues such as market price response and the reliability and resilience of electrical services from a security point of view.

This EU-funded Energy Policy Talk, hosted by INOGATE, will take the form of a short theme paper introduced by senior figures from the Ministry of Energy in Georgia, the Energy Community Secretariat and the European Union and will feature international speakers, Mr Janez Kopač, Dirctor of the Energy Community and Prof Vidmantas Jankauskas from Vilnius Technical University.

Among the questions to be discussed will be:

• The present state of electrical power supply in Georgia
• Improvements to TSOs/DSOs, market tariffs, demand and load reduction and consumer behaviour
• How will joining the Energy Community help and what are challenges/obstacles?
• The involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) and the private sector
• Lessons learned from other countries (Ukraine, Moldova and the EU)