Energy Investment Forum 2023 - Powered by MEKH
Program
Do we still have to fear security of supply risks, especially in the gas market, or can affordability and sustainability come back to the focus in the energy trilemma even as the war continues? What gas and electricity prices should we expect anyway, after the massive fall in prices since last summer? Based on the experience of the energy crisis, what strategic steps are needed at the EU and Hungarian level, for example in the context of the National Energy and Climate Plan under review and the extended Recovery and Resilience Plan? How can the share of gas in the Hungarian energy mix be reduced, and what grid development and energy storage tasks do electrification and the solar power boom impose on the system operators? How does the exploitation of domestic resources, such as gas extraction and the increased use of geothermal energy, help to increase energy sovereignty, and what regulatory and practical steps are needed to achieve this? The distinguished speakers in the first session will seek answers to these highly important, strategic questions.
Unconsumed energy is the cheapest - we have heard it so many times in the past decades, but with the amazing energy prices in 2022, this became especially true, which raised the question of energy efficiency investments to the first place for many, and this topic is covered from several aspects in the Section II/A. We will talk about the typical directions of companies' energy efficiency investments, electrification trends, decarbonization challenges and, of course, security of supply, which remains in focus.
There is a huge expansion in the solar power market in Hungary, which raises a wide range of supply, grid development, storage and commercial challenges and issues, and these are the questions that Session II/B will explore from several approaches. For example, the prospects for industrial and residential solar power projects under and pending authorisation, the challenges of transmission and distribution grid development, the export-import implications of severe fluctuations in weather-dependent power generation, the possibilities for demand-side management, the role of energy storage and aggregators, green hydrogen production, and all in all, the possibilities for increasing the resilience of many elements of the system, and the constraints.
There has been a huge fall in prices on gas and power exchanges since last summer, but how much longer can it last and what kind of price range is in prospect? This is of crucial importance for many companies, affecting production costs and thus competitiveness, so as the new gas year begins and the new electricity year approaches, Session III/A will look at the prospects for price developments and the directions of contractual arrangements, their opportunities and potential difficulties from the perspective of several players.
The energy transformation driven by the carbon neutral objectives indirectly requires dynamic development of electrical infrastructure at both local and national grid level. The use of new digital technologies has the potential to reduce the time needed for the desired transition and to improve the higher utilization of the existing infrastructure capacity. They also bring us closer to new revenue streams, market players, regulations and - last but not least - provide an opportunity to a mid-term technological development vision.
A foreign case study.
The use of energy as a weapon, the targeted missile attacks on Ukraine's energy grid, and the blowing up of the Nord Stream have shed new light on previously separate terms such as geopolitics, security policy, energy infrastructure protection and cyber security, but nowadays these are often mentioned "in the same breath" in connection with the big issue of divesting from Russian fossil fuels. But what are the spill-over effects of this strategic goal stated at the EU level by Heads of State and Government, and what does it mean for the achievement of the climate protection and decarbonisation goals, which are also important? Is there still a way back in EU-Russian energy relations after the sanctions give-and-take, what could the accelerated achievement of climate targets mean for EU energy prices, and what consequences might higher energy prices in Europe compared to the US and the Far East have regarding the economy, competitiveness, and the choice of business sites? These comprehensive issues will be explored in the closing session of the conference with a number of distinguished invited experts.
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