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ManagEnergy
European Conference on Local Energy Action
The Annual Event of
Energy Management Agents in Europe
28-29 November 2002, Brussels, Belgium
Interactive Chat
STATISTICS

Duration of Discussion: 6 hours (over two days)

Number of Participants: 35+

Countries of Participants: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

Total Number of Q/As & Comments: 738

Day 1 Topics discussed:

Day 2 Topics discussed:

GUIDELINES AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This online chat was organised as part of the ManagEnergy European Conference on Local Energy Action: The Annual Event of Energy Management Agents in Europe on 28-29 November 2002 in Brussels, Belgium. It enabled participants to submit advance questions and participate in discussions and the round table.

We recommend that you log on to the Chat when it starts and if possible stay logged on even if you are not able to follow the chat for the full period. This is because the disadvantage of a Chat session is that you cannot see messages that were written before you logged on.

Please be patient if you log on and see a blank screen or discussion which is not of direct interest to you. ManagEnergy always ensures that there is a team ready to respond to your questions. Your question may trigger a new discussion.

A blank screen may be due to people reading or answering questions, or may be due to delays in your internet connection. We suggest that on joining the chat you enter a short message introducing yourself and wait 2-3 minutes for a response before disconnecting.

If you use the standard facility offered on the Europa Chat page, you may only be able to see participants who have joined the chat after you. If you want enhance your chat experience and see a full participant list we recommend you install a program called mIRC which can be downloaded from www.mirc.co.uk.

The programme for the Chat is shown below.

Annual Conference for local and regional energy agencies
28 November 2002
09:00-15:00 Belgium Time Chat open for advance comments or questions
15:00-17:30 Belgium Time Interactive Chat in English enabling online participants to contribute to discussion of Intelligent Energy for Europe and Energy performance of buildings
29 November 2002
  09:00-11:30 Belgium Time Chat open for advance comments or questions
  11:30-13:00 Belgium Time Interactive Chat in English enabling online participants to contribute to discussion of Networking
  13:00-15:00 Belgium Time Chat open for advance comments or questions
  15:00-16:45 Belgium Time Interactive Chat in English enabling online participants to contribute to Round Table discussion
PARTICIPANTS
European Commission Directorate-General for Energy & Transport
Hans-Jakob Mydske (Chat Coordinator) Unit for Renewable Energies, Hans-Jakob.Mydske@ec.europa.int
Ian Hodgson Unit for Clean Urban Transport, Ian.Hodgson@ec.europa.int
Jean-Marie Bemtgen Unit for Demand Management, Jean-Marie.Bemtgen@ec.europa.int
European Commission SCIC
Jukka Savo Technology Advisor for ManagEnergy virtual events
scic-newtech@ec.europa.int
ManagEnergy management team
Egil Öfverholm ManagEnergy, Sweden, egil.ofverholm@energimyndigheten.se
Katy Hall ManagEnergy webmaster, UK, data@managenergy.net
Local Media-Conferences
Barcelona Toni Pujol-Vidal, Barcelona Energy Agency, Spain, agencia@barcelonaenergia.com - local media conference involving 26 participants.
EE_Elari Estonia Energy and Management, REC Estonia, esteam@esteam.ee - local media conference involving 6 participants.
ManagEnergy Registrants
sp_campos Anon, Spain
Giuliano Dall'O' Rete di Punti Energia, Lombardy, Italy, puntoenergia@puntoenergia.com
Karel Derveaux Ecopower cvba, Belgium, karel.derveaux@ecopower.be
Sonja Ewerstein Opet Network, Sweden, Sonja.Ewerstein@energimyndigheten.se
Edel Giltenane Codema, Dublin, Ireland, edel.giltenane@codema.ie
BE_JEROEN Anon, Belgium
UK_McDER Anon, UK
Saule Milciuviene West Electricity Distribution Company, Lithuania, Saule.Milciuviene@ket.vest.lt
José Miguel Oliveira Arealima, Ponte de Lima, Portugal, arealima@valima.pt
Helga Rally LandesEnergieVerein Steiermark, Graz, Austria, h.rally@lev.at
Morten Sondergaard Danish Energy Management A/S, Denmark/Malaysia, mos@dem.dk
Jaan Tepp Chairman of Estonian Wind Power Association, Member of RES Council in the Ministry of EC, Estonia, jaan@tuuleenergia.ee
PL_WOOLF Anon, Poland
DISCUSSION TRANSCRIPT
Many of the questions and issued raised during the chat were discussed by the speakers during their presentations or question & answer sessions. Hence further information on the topics below can be found in the proceedings and recordings of the conference.
Virtual Event Feedback & Support
Elari We have some problems with video streaming - sometimes it says "file not found". We have 1 mb/s connection but stream is not complete, there are problems with audio and picture is not continuous. We have tried both Windows Media and Realtime streams. It is buffering a lot. Is it possible that we having problems due to heavy stress of your server?
Jukka Savo Could you try again with both Windows Media and Real? We made some improvements to the connection between coders and the media server.
Elari We still have problems with the audio.
Jukka Savo I think it is probably a problem at your end. Give me your telephone number and I will call you to sort this out.
Morten Sondergaard Video and sound is ok here in Malaysia!
Katy Hall Are you able to follow both the chat and the webstreaming at the same time?
Elari Yes, we are.
Jaan Tepp In general yes, but it is hard to concentrate to both!
Edel Giltenane Hi Katy and everyone. I have just connected to the web streaming and unfortunately missed this morning's broadcast. I am currently connnected using Windows Media and sound quality is very poor.
Katy Hall We are sorry to hear that - the Real player version tends to be much better.
Edel Giltenane Tried to connect that way too but was unable to do so.. error might be at this end but will try again. I might try an other computer with an ISDN line.
Katy Hall Yes, I think it is probably a problem at your end, rather than here.
Jaan Tepp Come over to Tallinn - we do have a good one ;-))
Elari Someone should tell the speaker to not speak too loud. There is a great oversampling and voice quality is worse than it could be.
Katy Hall We will pass this information on to the technical team.
Elari It's useful to decrease mic level.
Katy Hall Does it help if you decrease the volume on your computer?
Elari No, it doesn't help.
Edel Giltenane Voice quality has improved here now.
Katy Hall Good - have you changed to another computer?
Edel Giltenane No still on same computer.. problem was at this end (laptop was not plugged in and battery running low!!)
Giuliano Dall'O' I am following the conference by web and I wanted check the functionality of the chat.
Katy Hall We recommend that you stay connected if possible so that you can follow the conversation later - even if you leave your computer during the day. If you disconnect from the chat you will not be able to view chat that has taken place during your absence.
Which format and language are you following for the webstreaming and is it good quality?
Giuliano Dall'O' Windows Media Player - English language- quality good. May I follow also other languages (e.g. Italian?)
Katy Hall You can follow with the Real Player in Italian - if you click on help there are instructions to download the player.
UK_McDER I have a couple of comments: Each online event seems to use a different chat program, so you have to download them all; and that the webcam is too far from the speakers, also the lighting in the hall could be better.
Katy Hall In reply to your first comment, within the Commission they tend to use the Europa service which is simple to use with the option to login via IRC. In fact, you should be able to use any IRC system or download the mIRC software. Further information can be found at: ec.europa.eu/chat/instructions/index_en.htm
Jukka Savo Hi, I'm one of the guys responsible of the technical aspects of the virtual conference. Yes, I agree with you about the picture. The problem is that we are using the fixed cameras in this large conference room and those cannot zoom closer.
BE_JEROEN I have followed a little bit of the sessions (those on wind energy by Ecopower). I don't have any questions, but I was attracted by the idea of webcasting such an event. Are you planning to do webcasts in the future, because I think it is something that is very handy for busy people?
Katy Hall Yes, ManagEnergy aims to assist and promote intelligent use of energy throughout Europe. Live transmission of virtual events (including video, sound and slide webcasts and use of parallel online chats such as this one) help us to disseminate information to a wide audience. Recordings, chat transcripts and proceedings will also be available on the ManagEnergy website.
Is the quality of the Virtual event good on your computer?
BE_JEROEN Yes, I am amazingly surprised by it because it allows many more people to attend your event without physically being there. Do you know if many other people like me are looking over the web ?
Katy Hall About 350 yesterday plus 50-100 in media-conferences (conferences organised at other locations in order to view the virtual event). [In total, 384 people attended the event in Brussels and a further 705 viewed the event online (requesting 2170 video clips)]
BE_JEROEN Wow, that many ? So it is a big success then ?
Katy Hall Yes we are very pleased with it - although not so many have participated in the chat. We will have to investigate why this is - do you have any ideas?
BE_JEROEN Hmm, indeed it is very quiet in here. But I don't have a clue. Anyway, I've got to go back to work. I hope I can follow a few sessions next time.
Katy Hall We will be sending a questionnaire to ManagEnergy registrants who may have participated in the virtual event to try and find out why. We look forward to chatting again in the future.
Sixth Framework Programme (FP6)
Jaan Tepp Will the December 2002 call be reflected on ManagEnergy website?
Katy Hall As soon as this information is available we will add the links on the managenergy site. The first calls for the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) will be published on 17 December 2002. Three calls will be opened under the 'integrating the European Research Area [ERA]', 'structuring the ERA' and 'Euratom' specific programmes. The homepage for FP6 is on CORDIS - www.cordis.lu/fp6
Saule Milciuviene I am interested in the EU programmes that will support hydrogen usage as a renewable energy source and new legislation which will make a better legal and financial environment for developing the use of hydrogen.
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Yes, the Commission gives high consideration to hydrogen as a new energy vector. Thus Vice-president Loyola de Palacio and Commissioner Busquin have created a high-level group of industrial experts. This high level group advises the Commission on policy and technology matters. We expect to have the first report available in April 2003 (will be publicly available on the internet).
In the sixth framework programme the subject of hydrogen production, storage and use in mobile and transport applications will receive a significant share of the available funds, mainly in long to medium term applications. For more information about hydrogen, see www.cordis.lu/fp6 or contact Mr. Angel Perez Sainz in DG Research (phone +32 2 299 11 11).
Saule Milciuviene What are the main legal issues relating to putting hydrogen and fuel cells technologies in to the energy market?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport There is no legislation about hydrogen. We have a communication on alternative fuels, which aims to achieve 20% of alternative fuels in the road transport sector. Hydrogen, natural gas and biofuels should acheive similar shares of this 20%.
  The technical issues are: standardisation, normalisation and safety issues. Legislation may follow if needed and when hydrogen is penetrating the market as a fuel (today it is traded as a chemical mainly).
PL_WOOLF What will be the position of forestry in the renewable energy sector in the future?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Biomass has a high priority in the EU energy policy and in the research programmes. Biomass includes residues and wastes, and thus forestry residues. The Commission has co-funded reserach and demonstration projects on co-combustion and co-gasification since 1991, with quite some success. These and other success stories are available on the ManagEnergy website.
PL_WOOLF Does the EU support transfer of technologies for private investors in Poland. They are very expensive for private investors who cannot afford this investment (for example:wood pellets technologies).
Jaan Tepp As I understood, FP6 is introducing the CONCERTO, which means that small, i.e. stand-alone projects are not going to be processed and every player, including small NGOs, must be integrated to the bigger overall regional projects. Is this correct?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Yes, CONCERTO is mainly about the new instruments of Integrated projects. You may submit smaller projects in other calls, such as the first call, to be published in December 2002.
  Having said this, there is a general trend to larger, more ambitious projects, with a high visibility and impact, always being application driven. We still see a clear role of smaller and local market actors, which address end users on the local level and will build up a win-win cooperation between small, medium and big players or applications.
PL_WOOLF Where I can find complete informaiton about CONCERTO? How friendly is this project for private investors?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport In the next months, we will organise several information events in order to discuss this new approach, the new clear focus of FP6 and the difference between CONCERTO and specific targeted projects.
New Community legislative and other initiatives
Jaan Tepp The burning issue currently is the use of structural funds. An opportunity has been opened by the EC to the new members so that within the RES sector organisations can apply for support in partnership with local municipalities. Unfortunately the local central ministries do not fully understand the issue of RES, thus expanding the use of structural fund sources from easy constructions, eg. roads, to CHP or wind applications is much tougher. What are the solutions to ensure opportunities are given for RES?
  Besides, to continue with structural funds, every country's resources for infrastructure are limited and some possibilities still exist to expand the ordinary ERDF funds by use fo the Cohesion Fund, which, unfortunately is not opened automatically. For Estonia the priority no. 4 (infrastructure) is providing 174 mio eur for 2003-2006. Unfortunately this is not a sufficient sum for RES applications since implementation of only 50 MW wind costs approximately 60 mio EUR.
Jaan Tepp Mr. Kellner is speaking currently about targets of RES in member and applicant countries - I hope it is well known that the Estonian government is negotiating about 5.1 % from total output, which is clearly too small a figure and doesn't reflect reality. DG TREN, please, do not just listen to the ministry officials, listen to the NGOs and third sector as well.
Jaan Tepp Comment on Mr. Turmes speech: Energy audit labelling system for residential buildings must be introduced for rising estate value and energy auditing must be widely promoted with help of private service providers (i.e. visibility of energy efficiency).

Changing Behaviour
Morten Sondergaard I'm currently running a Danish funded project in Malaysia, where we have included renewable energy and energy efficiency as part of the curriculum for secondary schools, we have developed teaching material and hands on activities kit (see our website: www.cetree.edu.my). We wonder if anything similar is under consideration within ManagEnergy?
Egil Öfverholm See the managenergy website. There are a number of projects on schools, just search for the word "school".
Intelligent Energy for Europe
Barcelona Has the Directive on housing efficiency certification been adopted?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Yes, the Directive on energy efficency in buildings was adopted last week. [See the legislation section of this website]
Barcelona When will the Intelligent Energy for Europe program be launched? Will it include new energy regional agencies?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport This is answered in Mr Hanreich's presentation. Do any participants have any questions about IEE that are not answered by Gunther Hanreichs presentation?
Barcelona Not for the moment.
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Is anyone online interested in development activities in the energy field foreseen in COOPENER? Also, Mr Hanreich is now discussing the important issue of local acion. Any views from you - local actors?
Jaan Tepp We will be looking later on for cooperation in bringing different EE instuments to the Estonian market.
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport Estonia will participate in the IEE programme, and you will be welcome to propose actions which are relevant to Estonia in this respect
Jaan Tepp Thank you, yes indeed at Tartu next month the IEE presentation is forseen and we are looking forward to discussing this.
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport The participation of accession countries in the IEE programme is now being presented by Mr Hanreich.
Barcelona What are the excuses that may justifiy nowadays within the EU the use of oil and coal, other than economic and geopolitical interests?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport This has to do with the availability of energy sources... you find a very detailed and official position on these key questions in the Commission's green paper on security of supply and the relevant communication (which summarises the debate triggered off by the stakeholders in the EU).
Katy Hall A link to the green paper can be found in the legislation section on the ManagEnergy site.
Barcelona Are there any funding options for training in renewable energies?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport There will be possibilities to submit proposals under the IEE programme, focussing on training.
Helga Rally Will it be possible to submit proposals for "horizontal key actions" in all programmes ALTENER; SAVE COOPENER and STEER ?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport In principle yes, but it should have a real integrated approach.
However, I doubt if you can develop a project with elements from all the four fields. Maybe somethin on local communities with twinning communities in third countries.
Helga Rally Will the instruments of "Network of Excellence" and "Integrated Projects" will be used in IEE-programme?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport The actions foreseen are Tenders, Proposals Subventions and Concerted Actions. The two that you refer to are new instruments from FP6.
Barcelona To what extent does the EU have the goal of a decentralized energy system? In that case, what measures are they going to implement in order to avoid the control of technologies by a few stakeholders from the industrial sector?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport This problem will be less significant with a decentralized system, compared with a centralized system
Barcelona What will happen to "dead buildings" that are completely inefficient such as the ones with central electrical heating systems?
Katy Hall Thank you for your questions - we have run out of time for questions now, but will try to put them in later sessions.
However, we will continue to answer your questions here.
Helga Rally Will there be a minimum/maximum limit for project budget and minimum/maximum limit for the number of project-partners?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport This is not clear yet, but in order to have a true European impact, it should not be too limited in size. Our aim is to have projects with a substantial impact. Therefore while there is not likely to be a threshold we are likely to fund about 80 projects per year.
  Re the number of partners, the minimum requirement is to have a partner from two different EU/EEA countries.
Helga Rally Can you already give me some informations about selection criterias ? Will there be changes compared to the finished programmes?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport The final Work Programme will contain details of the eligibility and evaluation criteria that will be used to select projects. The criteria will relate to issues such as quality of the proposal, value for money, community added value and the quality of the team proposed.
Helga Rally Does a DRAFT Work Programme exist, is it available?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport There is a draft, but it is not yet published. We are still undertaking a limited consultation on this, it will not be published until the Decision is adopted.
Helga Rally Thank you for your answers and goodbye till tomorrow, I will enter the chat again.
Jaan Tepp Will the "Campaign for Take-off" be prolonged in the frame of IEE?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport In a way, but it will be extended to also include Energy Efficiency.

 

 Thank you all for your questions - you had several very good questions and we will try to discuss them tomorrow with the audience.
sp_campos Will there be funds in the new program "Intelligent Energy for Europe" for the creation of new Energy Agencies?
  If there are, will the funds come directly from EU or through the National authorities?
European Commision Directorate-General for Energy & Transport There will be a limited earmaked budget for the establishment of new agencies in EU areas with low coverage, as well as new agencies in Accession states
  The base-funding of new agencies will come from the the Commission as before, but this will only last for a maximum of 3 years. After that, the funding should come from other sources, private or public. The EU funding for existing agencies will be in the form of actions to facilitate the collaboration between agencies and exchange of experience between them, such as this conference.
Innovative Financial Tools
Jaan Tepp From EBRD address I heard that EBRD can mobilize Technical Assistance donor funds for project preparation/intitutional strenghthening. I would be interested in having the focal point to that fund. Can you help?
Katy Hall Jaan - we have passed your question to the panel - hopefully they will include it in the discussions.
Questions for the Round Table
Sonja Ewerstein Is there anyone who could give an example of a successful technology result that would not have happened without the work in the network of the energy agencies?
Do you agree that is would be good if the organisation EnR in the future included also the candidate European Central and Eastern countries?
Egil Öfverholm EnR is in the process of involving Central and Eastern European countries.
Sonja Ewerstein It is difficult to see how much energy is being saved by implementing energy efficient technologies and systems. Wouldn't it be good to elaborate a mutual European measuring method so that we can see exactly what is being gained by investing in energy efficient technology and systems?
  About transport: would it be possible to elaborate an infrastructure by all local and regional agencies in Europe to introduce possibilities to tank alternative fuels (biogas or ethanol) in the regions so that a car could go around in Europe without tanking fossil fuel?
José Miguel Oliveira Suggestion: For the next conference bring the other DGs to see how the energy issues are integrated in other EU policies, such as Agriculture, Regional Development, Environment, etc...
Karel Derveaux Regarding Building Directive: the EC has to give the example: apply directive to buildings occupied by the EC and the EP. Get the buildings certified, certificates dispayed. Apply principles of energy demand management in buildings. This would be a shining example for all European citizens !
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