The future of the nergy systems was on focus at the Energy forum held at the Martti Ahtisaari Institute, Oulu, Finland on 29th of May. Three engaging presentations were given, which dealt with the changing energy market and its challenges.

In the first presentation “Market Design Challenges for Low Carbon Electricity Supply Industries” by Frank Wolak, Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies at Stanford University, talked about the difficulties with introducing increasing amounts of renewable energy to the market, while using California as an example. Especially the difficulties of day-ahead pricing with somewhat unpredictable nature of solar and wind power compared to that of thermal energy. Professor Wolak also presented some ideas for solutions that could make low carbon electricity more favorable in the market.

Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen, Research Professor, University of Oulu and the Finnish Environment Institute Energy Hierarchies to Energy Communities, talked about flexible demand and supply in Nordic energy markets. Kopsakangas-Savolainen presented some of the strengths of the unique Nordic energy market and also results of a customer survey focused on the customers’ willingness to adapt to a more flexible energy market in the future.

Lastly, Jan Sagerstam, Development Director at Empower IM Ltd, held a presentation with a title “From Energy Hierarchies to Energy Communities”. Sagerstam further focused on how the Nordic electric market will change in the future and how the different operators will settle to their places in the new more flexible market. He also talked about how the flexible supply and demand systems also require more communication between consumers and providers, the Nordic electric grid is in this way also ready for the change as most of the consumers are already fitted with smart electric meters.

The programme, including presentations, is available here: http://www.mai.fi/en/news/energy-forum-29.5.2017-focus-on-future-energy-systems.html The event was organised in cooperation with the BCDC Energy research project, which is coordinated by Uniersity of Oulu. More information about BCDC Energy is available from here: http://www.bcdcenergia.fi/en/