Welcome to KEMA's Utility of the Future Conference Europe & Middle East

The energy landscape is changing, and this changing landscape is resulting in uncertainty in stakeholder priorities, investment decisions, and roles and responsibilities. An increasing use of electrical appliances and a fuel shift from oil-based transportation to the electrification of transport means that energy demand will result in greater dependence on power quality and security of supply. Increased fluctuations in supply and demand will result in less predictable power flows. Natural gas plays a greater role in providing flexibility to our energy system. Consumers becoming producers (prosumers) will affect power flow and the energy market, requiring development of new market mechanisms.

What we are seeing in response to this uncertainty is an energy transition - a shift to an optimal future where we have a balance between environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and security of supply. The energy transition is creating new links in an evolving value chain.

There are new players in the game, and at the same time, existing players are faced with redefining their roles. New expert fields and technologies are cropping up, and regulations must be adjusted to cope with this innovation and invention. Everyone involved in this “new world of energy” is going to have to come together to work in radically different ways.

The goals and deadlines set out by our governments in the past few years have been affected by an energy crisis – shortages, rising costs and peak oil threaten our current situation, both economically and on a basic survival level. All of this has been further impacted by the economic crisis that we are only now beginning to recover from (according to the analysts), and by the latest developments in Middle East countries and Japan. It has become very obvious to all of us that change was needed yesterday.

At our Utility of the Future conference in Amsterdam, we will look at a number of questions that are being raised in this new era: How can we profitably use and integrate renewable energy sources? Is there a role for carbon capture, transport and storage in this new era? How will our transport and buildings become more sustainable and energy efficient? These questions are rising out an industry that already sees growing power demand, aging infrastructure and workforce, and increasing requirements for reliability.”

We are looking forward meeting you in Amsterdam.

• Thijs Aarten & Pier Nabuurs
  Executive Board KEMA