Set Plan conference, the event of the European research in Rome

Technological innovation, scientific research, integrated participation of public and private entities, clear institutional guidelines. Such issues, useful for reaching EU targets of decarbonization, emerged at the Set Plan Conference, a European conference the last edition of which was held in Italy, in Rome, on December 10-11.

The response of the Set Plan to the three European targets of CO2 reduction, energy efficiency and integrated solutions in the real environment is the threefold challenge: to shift the focus on the public, and above all to make it more active in the energy process as consumers; to optimize the energy system; to advance towards an energy union, a process that the EU has started with a certain delay and which is necessary to be expedited more than ever.

Therefrom derive the titles of three conference sessions chaired by: Marie C. Donnelly Director for Renewable Resources, Research and Innovation, Energy Efficiency DG Energy, EC; Andras Siegler Director for Energy DG, RTD, EC; Giovanni De Santi Director of the Institute for Energy and Transport, JRC, EC, respectively.

“If we want a smart energy system, we need infrastructure able to sustain it. The electricity system has to be more flexible, more intelligent” begins with these words Giovanni De Santi Director at the Institute for Energy and Transport,, JRC, EC. The items on the agenda are integration of the network storage, management of distribution network, connection between different energy resources of the system, such as energy and gas. There is also integration of electric vehicles, different network management thanks to smart meters, a proactive role of the public and a different, flexible and timely cost model.

But also a new concept of smart city, designed in consideration of the real requirements of a smart city which inevitably will be more numerous than in the present scenario. It has to be elaborated, above all as a system exceeding the city borders, according to a regional perspective. Yet, what emerges from the Set Plan conference is the need of synergy between regulation, industry and research taking account of the effects on the environmental system and the industrial competitiveness. The concept of city, and of networks in the first place responds to the global need of the supply and distribution flexibility.

Here you find some video interviews done at the event