Bram Delvaux

Smart meters from the angles of consumer protection and public service obligations

Digital meters for electricity and gas, which are connected to an information infrastructure are an important component of the smart metering and smart grid infrastructure being deployed. Besides technical and business perspectives, such infrastructure has an impact on the consumer and on authorities that have public service obligations. This paper discusses those elements, also in the context of the assessment that is needed for the European directives 2009/72/EC and 2009/73/EC. It positions smart meters with respect to energy savings and outlines requirements for relevant cost / benefit analyses.

How to increase cross border transmission capacity? A case study: Belgium

Cross border capacity allows electric energy to be traded internationally. The electricity sector used to be vertically integrated and often state-owned. High voltage grids were generally developed within the borders of a country. Connecting different national high voltage grids was done to improve the security of the system and to accomodate for a few historical long term contracts. By doing so, the different systems could share their reserve generation capacity. Since the liberalization of the electricity sector, cross border capacity has gained a renewed interest as this can increase the competition in the market. This paper aims to give an overview of recent and planned investments which increase the cross border capacity of Belgium. Also we give an insight into the different technologies which can be used and their advantages and drawbacks are discussed.