David MacKay Received Knighthood for His Work in Energy and Climate Change

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David MacKay, Regius Professor of Engineering, Cambridge University Engineering Department, lately Chief Scientific Advisor at DECC, and EPRG Associate Researcher, has been awarded a Knighthood in the 2016 New Year Honours List for “services to Scientific Advice in Government and Science Outreach”. Congratulations to Professor MacKay! We at EPRG are very proud to count him as one of… Continue Reading

Comment “Response to CMA on Supplemental Remedies” by S. Littlechild

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Stephen Littlechild and the other former energy regulators recently submitted their response to CMA on Supplemental Remedies. In their response they argue that prohibiting Standard Variable Tariffs would overrule customer preferences. It would be better to promote more competition for SVTs. They also propose an alternative way forward, to recognise that the extent of Ofgem’s… Continue Reading

Report “Regulation of Retail Energy Markets in the UK and Australia” by S. Littlechild

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Stephen Littlechild published a report “Regulation of Retail Energy Markets in the UK and Australia” in a weekly energy newsletter of Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA) on 15 October 2015. The full text of the report can be found here. You can also click here to read the introduction by Andrew Dillon, General Manager of Corporate… Continue Reading

Comment “Snakes and Ladders: price controls and markets. What might the CMA’s provisional findings mean for retail markets in utility services?” by S. Littlechild

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Stephen Littlechild, Fellow at Judge Business School and EPRG Associate Researcher, addressed the Indepen Forum on 29 September 2015 which was on the theme”Snakes and Ladders: price controls and markets. What might the CMA’s provisional findings mean for retail markets in utility services?” The full text of his opening remarks can be found here. Continue Reading

Op-ed “Nord Stream: The Sequel” by C.K. Chyong and D. Reiner

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Chi Kong Chyong and David Reiner published an article “Nord Stream: The Sequel” on 12 August 2015 in EUobserver, an independent online newspaper covering EU affairs and based in Brussels. “The proposal to expand Nord Stream comes amid difficult negotiations on Turkish Stream, which, in December, replaced South Stream as the main transit proposal for… Continue Reading

D. Reiner and C. K. Chyong quoted in “Nord Stream 2 Expansion to Face Political Hurdles”, Interfax Energy, 7 August 2015

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David Reiner and Chi Kong Chyong were quoted in an article “Nord Stream 2 Expansion to Face Political Hurdles“, published by Annemarie Botzki on Interfax Energy website on 7 August 2015. “Nord Stream 2 would be cheaper because it is closer to the new Russian production base in Yamal, which would lower the cost of shipping gas to… Continue Reading

Op-ed “Russia’s Gas Pipeline Strategy and Europe’s Alternatives” by C. K. Chyong

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Chi Kong Chyong published an article “Russia’s Gas Pipeline Strategy and Europe’s Alternatives” on EurActiv.com – the leading online media on EU affaires, on July 3, 2015. “Strained relationships between EU and Russia due to the Ukrainian conflict forced Gazprom, Russia’s state gas monopolist, to abandon the idea of controlling pipelines “from wellhead to burner tip”. Gazprom’s new… Continue Reading

Article “‘Goldilocks’ Energy Price Limit Doesn’t Bear Scrutiny” by S. Littlechild

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Stephen Littlechild, Fellow at Judge Business School and EPRG Associate Researcher, published an article ‘Goldilocks’ Energy Price Limit Doesn’t Bear Scrutiny in The Telegraph newspaper. “Two cheers for the Competition and Markets Authority’s provisional findings in its energy market investigation. The first is for its comprehensive assessment of which aspects are a problem and which aren’t.… Continue Reading

EPRG/CEEPR Annual Conference with support of Shell, London, UK, 9 -10 July 2015

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EPRG is pleased to announce our successful 2015 EPRG/CEEPR Annual Conference with support from Shell. The Conference took place at The Langham Hotel in London on 9 – 10 July and comprised of 1,5 day of sessions and dinner. PROGRAMME Thursday 9 July 2015 SESSION 1 – SETTING A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION Chaired by Suman Bery … Continue Reading

Presentation “Why ‘Good Energy Policy’ is Difficult? – Reflections on 5 Years in the DECC” by D. MacKay

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David MacKay, Professor of Engineering and EPRG Associate, gave a presentation “Why ‘Good Energy Policy’ is Difficult? – Reflections on 5 Years in the DECC” on 30 April 2015 at In Search of ‘Good’ Energy Policy meeting on the policy making process of Department of Energy and Climate Change based on his time at DECC |… Continue Reading

C.K. Chyong quoted in “Deeper Reforms Needed for Ukrainian Gas Market”, 12 June 2015

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C. K. Chyong was quoted in an article “Deeper reforms needed for Ukrainian gas market” published in ICIS website newsletter – the world largest petrochemical market information provider that covers Energy among other subjects.   “The Ukraine’s new gas market law will have little impact on the transparency and efficiency of the country’s gas sector if… Continue Reading

2015 EPRG Spring Seminar

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EPRG is pleased to announce our successful 2015 Spring Seminar in partnership with FTI Consulting and Compass Lexecon. On June 4, 2015 EPRG hosted delegates to a dinner at Newnham College, and on June 5, 2015 at The Moller Centre for a full-day seminar. Programme SESSION 1 – EU Energy Union – which way forward for the… Continue Reading

Op-ed “Brussels Blames Gazprom for Its Own Failings” by Pierre Noel

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Pierre Noel, senior fellow for Economic and Energy Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore and Associate Researcher at EPRG, published an article “Brussels Blames Gazprom for Its Own Failings” in Financial Times on 29 April 2015. “The Russian state-owed company stands accused of anti-competitive practices allowing it to charge “unfair prices” in several… Continue Reading

C.K. Chyong quoted in “EU Importing More Russian Gas Ahead Of Winter “, Montel, 16 April 2015

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Chi Kong Chyong was quoted in an article on Montel website – key information provider for the European energy markets in Norway, – on reasons behind increasing purchases of Russian gas by European Union. “European buyers are playing “intertemporal arbitrage” whereby they dry up gas in their storage facilities and re-inject them when Russian gas prices are lower in… Continue Reading

C. K. Chyong quoted in “Never Ending Story Of Opportunities: Caspian Blue Energy Is Salvation For EU”, Eurasia Review, 20 April 2015

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Chi Kong Chyong was quoted in Eurasia Review, an independent on-line journal and think tank, on possibilities and challenges for Caspian countries, like Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran, to be gas suppliers to the EU. The article also appeared in AzerNews and New Europe. “Azerbaijan is perhaps the only supplier in the region able to respond to the EU’s gas… Continue Reading

C.K. Chyong quoted in “Turkish Stream Project Success Promises Benefits, Profits To Many South-Eastern EU States”, PenzaNews, 10 April 2015

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Chi Kong Chyong was quoted in PenzaNews, an independent on-line news agency in Penza, Russia, on possible perspectives and benefits for Europe by using different gas suppliers, and on the outcomes if Turkish Stream is built in full. “Co-existence between the two (gas suppliers from Russia and Azerbaijan) is not an issue, at least for Europe as the clients… Continue Reading

Op-ed “Time for ‘tough love’ in EU-Ukraine energy relations” by C.K. Chyong and D. Reiner

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CK Chyong and D. Reiner published an article “Time for ‘tough love’ in EU-Ukraine energy relations” in Europe’s World policy journal. Published every 4 months, Europe’s World is the only independent Europe-wide policy journal, produced in association with some 150-plus leading European think tanks and academic institutions. “If the EU is too forgiving in its… Continue Reading

Article “Power to the Poor” by M. Bazilian

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Morgan Bazilian, Lead Energy Specialist at the World Bank and Associate Researcher at EPRG, published an article on world energy poverty in Foreign Affairs magazine. “Some two billion people lack electricity outright or have poor-quality service, and nearly three billion rely on dirty fuels, such as firewood and animal dung, for cooking and heating. Nearly 90 percent of… Continue Reading

C.K. Chyong quoted in “How’s European Gas Race Going?”, AzerNews, 17 March 2015

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Chi Kong Chyong was quoted in AzerNews, daily newspaper in Azerbaijan, on his perception about different suppliers of gas to Europe, including Caspian Region, as a solution to EU energy problem due to the crisis in Ukraine. “The Turkish Stream is as about bypassing Ukraine as it is about foreclosing competition from Caspian gas, particular coming from Azerbaijan and… Continue Reading

Presentation “The Rise and Fall of South Stream and implications for a European Energy Union” by Chi Kong Chyong

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Chi Kong Chyong gave a presentation on “The Rise and Fall of South Stream and implications for a European Energy Union” at a conference “Energy Infrastructures: Towards The Creation Of A ‘European Energy Union’” organised by the Centre for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy (12 February 2015) | PDF Continue Reading

Prof. Michael Pollitt – “Energy Prices: Is a Price Freeze a Sensible Way to Restore Trust in the Market?”, 18:30-20:30, 29 January, London

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Professor Michael Pollitt, EPRG, Cambridge Judge Business School Join Michael Pollitt, Professor of Business Economics at Cambridge Judge Business School & Assistant Director of EPRG, as he discusses the state of the energy market and how it has evolved over the last few years. Taking into account competitive market theory, Michael will consider the relationship… Continue Reading

Creation of a gas hub in Turkey for Gazprom deliveries to Europe may change the Europeans’ view of the country, as well as trigger the rise of energy bills

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Creation of a gas hub in Turkey for Gazprom deliveries to Europe may change the Europeans’ view of the country, as well as trigger the rise of energy bills, the analysts of the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the University of Cambridge expressed their opinion to Sputnik Thursday Continue Reading

EPRG research on energy market regulation was singled out as one of the Cambridge University’s leading impact studies

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Research from Cambridge Judge Business School’s Dr Michael Pollitt and Dr Stephen Littlechild has been instrumental in developing a new system of regulation which encourages engagement with customers. Dr Pollitt and Dr Littlechild’s involvement provided credibility to Ofgem’s ‘very significant’ RPI‐X@20 review of network prices. Energy network charges make up around 20 per cent of… Continue Reading

New EPRG Policy Brief on EU 2030 energy and climate proposals

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For full text of the EPRG Policy Brief: http://www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/EPRG-Policy-Brief-22-Oct-14.pdf ‘Nothing is being done’ to explicitly encourage emissions cut by China and America’ 22 October 2014 The 2030 framework on climate change and energy policy being debated at a European Union summit this week has a “glaring omission” by failing to link EU policy to… Continue Reading

Op-ed “Ukraine’s energy brinkmanship” by Chi Kong Chyong and Pierre Noël

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In the fog of its foreign-policy confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, the European Union seems unable to see its energy-security interests clearly or to act accordingly. Kiev has used the international crisis triggered by Russia’s actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine to restructure the contracts with Moscow it signed in 2009. It wants a much… Continue Reading

Opportunity–EPRG Research Assistant (Fixed Term)

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Please click here for the official announcement The Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) wishes to appoint a Research Assistant to support the research on the EPSRC Autonomic Power System project. More details of the project can be found at: http://autonomicpowersystem.org.uk/ The successful applicant will work primarily on projects looking into two aspects of the future… Continue Reading

2014 EPRG/CEEPR Annual Conference, 2-3 July, Madrid

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Available speaker presentations: Pre-session address by José María Marín-Quemada (Spanish National Authority for Markets and Competition) Session 1A: European Energy and Climate Outlook for 2030 by David Newbery, EPRG Session 1B: Is the EU-ETS Up to the Task? by Michael Mehling, MIT Session 2A: Hydraulic Fracturing: The US Experience and Implications for the Rest of… Continue Reading

Explanatory Statement on the Regulatory Conduct Authority’s Occasional Paper 1

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There was a wide variety of responses to “Applying behavioural economics at the Regulatory Conduct Authority”, Occasional Paper 1, published on 1 April 2014. These ranged from support for or concern about the RCA’s proposed policy, through the enigmatic “thank you, very interesting”, to “fantastic, brilliant”. But I suspect that a large number of readers… Continue Reading

Professor Stephen Littlechild, EPRG Research Associate, contributes to the first working paper of the Regulatory Conduct Authority (RCA).

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Download PDF Here A rapidly growing literature on behavioural economics shows that some errors made by regulators are persistent and predictable. Behavioural economics uses insights from psychology to explain why regulators behave the way they do. Behavioural biases can cause regulators to misjudge important facts or to be inconsistent. Regulators left to themselves will often… Continue Reading

Planetary Economics Book Launch, 10th March 2014,

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PLANETARY ECONOMICS Energy, Climate Change and the Three Domains of Sustainable Development By Michael Grubb Launch meeting on 10th March 2014, 6-7.30pm, Beves Room, Kings College, Cambridge Chair: Lord Martin Rees, former President, Royal Society and Master, Trinity College Cambridge Presentation: Michael Grubb Respondents: Sir David King (UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change and… Continue Reading

EPRG-DG ENER Workshop 9-10 January, 2014

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DG ENER and EPRG collaborated on a join workshop that took place 9-10 January in Cambridge, United Kingdom. There was a dinner held at Clare College the evening of the 9th, including a key-note speech by Klaus-Dieter Borchardt (DG ENER, Director Unit B) and a full-day seminar at Memorial Court, Clare College on the 10th. … Continue Reading

ENEL Foundation Press Release

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Press Release “The Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG), a joint research centre based in Cambridge Judge Business School and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge recently received £190,000 as a donation from the Enel Foundation to support a two-year research project on “Zero Subsidy Scenarios and International Natural Gas Markets”. The project… Continue Reading