For two days, October 15-16, 2018, Corneliu Bodea participated in the meeting on the Implementation of the Economic and Environmental Dimension of the OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe organized in Vienna under the rotating presidency of Italy.
The meeting aimed to review the implementation of the OSCE’s commitments from an economic and environmental perspective and to intensify dialogue and cooperation between participating states in key thematic areas.
Corneliu BODEA, president of CRE and CEO of Adrem, was invited to the first debate session with an intervention on the topic “The energy sector in the era of digitalization”.
According to the president of the CRE, digitalization is a necessity, not an option. The exponential development of the digital domain is all the more impressive as 90% of the data existing today was made only in the last 2 years. Digital technologies allow the development of interconnection projects, which in turn represent the sustainable option for energy security.
The European Commission, through the Member States, has committed to achieving an interconnection level of 10% by 2020, projects of common interest that require an investment of EUR 40 billion in the period 2015-2020. However, only 17 Member States have reached or will reach the mentioned interconnection target. Globally, investments in digital technologies are currently gaining, in 2016 exceeding by 40% the total investments in natural gas generation capacities.
Digitalization brings important benefits in areas such as: (1) energy efficiency, (2) development of smart grid, smart metering and microgrid projects, (3) asset management programs on renewable energy sources, storage technologies, electric vehicles, prosumers and (4) peer to peer energy trading platforms.
At the end of the presentation, Corneliu BODEA recommended a series of activities and measures regarding the OSCE organization:
- To promote the benefits of digitalization processes in the energy sectors of the OSCE space, while also supporting the identification of the security risks of digitalization;
- To support cooperation between the public and private sectors in ensuring the digital transition and human capital development policies associated with digitization processes in the energy sectors of the OSCE participating states;
- To promote the exchange of experience and good practices in the field of digitalization at the level of the OSCE participating states;
- To provide expert assistance in order to intensify the collaboration of OSCE participating states aimed at leading the digital transition in their energy sectors.
In conclusion, digitalization is the factor with the greatest influence in the economic and social evolution and development of the last period, leading to energy efficiency and operational optimization. Interconnection projects are basic elements of energy security, and investments in the digitalization of the energy sector exceed those in classic generation technologies. Last but not least, governments must support the evolution of the digital economy by ensuring coherent and predictable legal and regulatory frameworks that encourage investments in energy infrastructure modernization, smart grids and smart metering.
