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We have sponsored the Energy Transition Readiness Index (ETRI), published by the Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology (REA), since 2019. The 2023 index includes 14 European countries and it assesses the key characteristics of the electricity markets in these countries, as well as each country’s present and future needs for flexibility resources.
Assessment and scoring were based on a survey of energy market experts, followed up by one-to-one interviews that were designed to fully understand the underlying reasons for responses. Survey respondents were invited to comment on how energy market volatility had impacted their confidence in Europe’s progress towards the energy transition.
The 2023 Energy Transition Readiness Index was published on 8 November 2023. Watch the London launch event here.
Key findings were presented by the ETRI report author, Robert Hull, director of the independent consultancy firm, Riverswan Energy Advisory. Robert has worked in the power and utility industry sector, in the UK and worldwide, for more than 30 years, and held senior leadership roles with Ofgem, National Grid, and KPMG.
The report highlights a major challenge that some of Europe’s biggest economies face in achieving their 2030 renewable energy targets: the need for greater demand-side flexibility to stabilise high-renewable grids. The report concludes that governments must respond with policies that will deliver the fair, transparent, easily accessible markets needed to attract private investments in demand-side flexibility.
There is much good news for Europe in this detailed and fascinating survey, with the index also encompassing sub-rankings for the socio-economic and technological factors that support or impede investments in the energy transition. Increasing the level of support for enabling technologies, such as EV charging infrastructure and smart meter rollout, is one of the ways that countries can boost flexibility, and therefore help to close the flexibility gap, and there is evidence that some countries are seizing this opportunity.
Business enthusiasm for the energy transition is growing, spurred on by concerns about carbon emissions, energy security and price volatility. As this report says, the response must be policies that will deliver the fair, transparent, easily accessible markets needed to attract private investments in demand-side flexibility and make the energy transition accessible and affordable to all. Stability and predictability will boost investor confidence in projects that can often have quite lengthy payback periods.
