Reaching net zero: scenarios and regulation to rethink sector coupling

Antonio Lopez-Nicolas is Deputy Head of the Renewables and Energy System Integration Policy Unit at the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission.

In his current role, he has led the the preparation of the Energy System Integration and Hydrogen Strategies adopted in July 2020 under the European Green Deal. He has also been deeply involved in the negotiations of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package, including the revised Renewables Directive for the period after 2020.

Antonio is an electrical engineer with further studies in economics and management and has a wide professional experience in different relevant positions in the energy sector. Previously, he worked at ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, as Head of the Market Unit in charge of network code development, market design and transparency issues. He has also held different positions at both Red Electrica and Endesa in Spain.

Morten Helveg Petersen has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2014 as a Vice-Chair of ITRE, acting as Shadow Rapporteur on several key reports such as the European Energy Security Strategy, the implementation report on the Energy Efficiency Directive and more recently as Rapporteur on the regulation of Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). In the 2019-2024 mandate he continues his dedicated work on securing the green transition, where he has recently been appointed Rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy.

Before that, he served as a member of the Danish parliament from 1998 to 2009, after which he became the vice president of the association of Danish Media. In September 2013, the Danish Social Liberal Party nominated him their top candidate for the 2014 European Parliament election. He is also Chair of Energy Solutions, a cross-party European Parliamentary network which brings a holistic approach to EU Energy Legislation.

Francesco Del Pizzo is, since June 2020, the Terna Executive Vice President responsible for Grid Development Strategies and Dispatching.

From 2018 to 2020, he managed Acea S.p.A.’s Industrial Energy Infrastructure Area and was Executive Chairman of Areti, the energy distribution company for the metropolitan area of Rome.

From 2005 to 2013, he worked for the Terna Group, taking on roles of increasing responsibility: CIO, Dispatching and Energy Operations Director, President at Suntergrid, Chairman of Terna Plus and Terna Storage.

Previously, Francesco Del Pizzo held various high-level positions at international energy, technology and consulting companies: VP at IGT, a leading commercial operator and technology provider for regulated gaming markets worldwide; Renewable and Smartgrid Director at DEWA, a public water and power company based in Dubai; Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, a global strategic consulting firm.

Francesco Del Pizzo holds a degree in Information Sciences (Computer Science) from the University of Salerno and a master’s degree in telecommunications from the Polytechnic University of Turin.

During the academic year 2022-2023, he was also a University of Salerno lecturer teaching the “Smart Energy Management & Technologies for Sustainability” course.

Pascale Fonck is Chief External Relations Officer at Elia, the Belgian TSO. She is also chair of the Market Committee of ENTSO-E.

Pascale has held a number of positions at Elia, mostly focusing on EU market integration projects and regulatory affairs. During the electricity liberalisation process in Belgium, she developed the tariff model for the use of transmission networks.

She holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Liège.

Dr Annegret Groebel is a Director of International Relations at the German Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA). Dr Groebel has worked for BNetzA since 1998.

She is CEER President since January 2019 and was Vice President of CEER since 2012. She also co-chairs the CEER Market Integration and Transparency (MIT) Working Group since 2013.

She is a member of the Board of Regulators of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).

Dr Groebel has a PhD in Economics from the University of Mannheim, an M.A. (Master of European Administrative Management) from FH Bund (Bruehl) and a Diploma in Economics from the University of Heidelberg.

She has an excellent knowledge of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications as well as the regulatory framework for the internal energy market. She has experience in advising public authorities on regulatory reform and sector specific regulation and is actively involved in the work of the European Regulators Group (ERG) and of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

Apart from her professional duties, she has also been lecturing for a considerable time on different subjects in economics, finance, social policy, trade policy and European Integration, as well as on the regulatory framework in the German and European telecommunications and energy markets at different universities and vocational training academies in Germany, the FSR in Italy, and Switzerland.

Dr Groebel is the author of various publications in the field of telecommunications and energy regulation.

Catherine Leboul-Proust is Chief Strategy Officer of GRDF and a member of the executive committee of the company. She oversees institutional relations, strategic studies, CSR, data policy as well as international development and R&D governance.

She has over 20 years of experience in the industrial and energy sector where she held various positions in the fields of institutional relations, corporate social responsibility, change and organisational management. Prior to GRDF in 2016, she was the former executive secretary of LYDEC, a subsidiary of SUEZ based in Casablanca (Morocco), in charge of the animation of social governance, the corporate project, the internal audit and the development departments.

She holds a master’s degree in law from University of Lyon III, and is graduated from Sciences Po.

Massimo Ricci is director of the Wholesale Energy Markets and Environmental Sustainability Department and head of Energy Division of ARERA.

In energy policy and regulation, Massimo completed a 10 years experience working for the Italian Energy Regulator, leading the power and gas markets department for more than 4 years and dealing with power and gas markets and developing Italian and European regulation. He worked for 4 years in the position of Chairman and CEO of GME, the Italian power and Gas markets exchange, and acted as Chairman of Europex (the European association of energy exchanges) for more than 2 years. In his previous work experiences in a private company active in the energy business and as a consultant, he developed skills in managing the energy business and developing computer models for energy systems optimization and market simulations.

Holding a Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pavia, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pisa, Massimo has over 20 years of experience in the area of energy markets and energy policy and regulation.

Yves Vercammen joined Fluxys in October 2018 as Transformation Projects Director, focusing on the challenges and opportunities related to the energy transition and digitalisation.

After having obtained a degree in Commercial Engineering from the University of Antwerp and having worked for the Swiss-based consultancy firm (TC Team Consult) for about 5 years, he joined the energy world in 1997. Indeed, in 1997, Yves joined the Belgian based energy company ‘Tractebel’ (nowadays Engie) and was responsible for the implementation of several organisational – and IT projects (including all e-business related projects for Electrabel until 2001).  After obtaining an MBA from the London Business School that year (2001), he entered the financial area and was SVP business control at Suez Energy International for several years until he joined Distrigas in 2005 to take the position of Chief Financial Officer.  End 2008, he became head of portfolio management, operations and trading at Distrigas and in 2011 he joined “eni trading and shipping” where he remained until 2018 as General Manager, responsible for the global commodity trading activity of the Italian oil major eni (covering the front-office activities related to the physical and financial trading of gas, power, CO2, lng, crude-oil and oil products).

Dr. Kong Chyong is an applied energy economist and policy analyst with a strong background and more than fifteen years of experience in applications of economics and operational research methods to energy and climate policy questions. Kong’s research interests include economics and geopolitics of Russian natural gas exports, with a focus on Russo-Ukrainian bilateral relations and impacts on Europe and global gas markets. He also works on large-scale modelling of power markets, with a focus on low-carbon generation sources and integration of renewables.

Currently, Kong is a Senior Research Fellow in Energy System Economics and Modelling at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Before this, he was Senior Research Scholar with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Prior to joining Columbia University, Kong was a research associate with the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) based at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Kong holds a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy (2011) and an MPhil in Technology Policy (2007) from the University of Cambridge. His PhD topic concerned Russia’s strategic natural gas export policy and Gazprom’s pipeline investment strategy.

Prior to his studies at Cambridge University, Kong was a researcher at the at the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine.

Michael Pollitt is Professor of Business Economics at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He is an Assistant Director of the university’s Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) and a Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics and Management at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Michael is an elected Vice President (for Publications) of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). He is a former external economic advisor to Ofgem.

Bruno Liebhaberg is Executive Chairman of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010.

From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market.

He holds a Master’s in management sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

¹Also representing B.LIEBHABERG S.A., Director General

²Member of the Strategic Committee

Máximo Miccinilli* was Director, Energy & Climate at the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), leading the think tank’s research and activities related to energy and climate.

He was previously leading the public affairs and communications activities of European Aluminium where he managed international campaigns on energy and climate matters. 

Prior to this, he was a manager in the energy and climate practice at Burson-Marsteller Brussels (now BCW), a leading global PA and PR agency. 

Earlier in his career, he worked for the Italian Ministry of European Affairs and the European Commission on single market and external policies. 

He holds a MA in European Law from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a MBA in Business and Finances from the Solvay Business School (Brussels).

*Representing One Policy Lab SRL