"Energy Conference 2012" at ZEW

From June 25 until June 26, 2012, some 60 energy experts met at the "Energy Conference 2012" hosted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. During the two-day conference, researchers and experts from enterprises and organisations discussed topics such as competition in the electricity market, regulation of energy markets, electricity costs as well as innovations and investment options in the energy sector.

The international conference war organised by the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation" (MaCCI). MaCCI is a joint interdisciplinary project of ZEW and the School of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim.

Key note speakers at the plenum were Jochen Homann (president of the Federal Network Agency), Michael Pollitt (University of Cambridge, UK), Frank A. Wolak (Stanford University, US) and Michael Waterson (University of Warwick, UK).

In addition to numerous workshops focusing on the developments in energy markets, the key event of the conference was a panel discussion hosted by Georg Licht. Under the title "Small Grids Challenges", Stephanie von Ahlefeldt (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology), Jochen Kreusel (ABB AG), Gabriele Riedmann de Trinidad (Deutsche Telekom AG) and Carla Seidel (BASF SE) discussed the topic of smart grids.