Event
European Economic and Social Committee, Rue Van Maerlant 2, 1000 Brussels
11.04.2024
14:00 - 17:30

CEER Customer Conference 2024

From Aspiration to Implementation: Delivering an Energy System Fit For All Consumers

This CEER Customer Conference 2024 will serve as a comprehensive exploration of recently approved legislation packages and their optimal implementation by EU energy stakeholders. The conference will unfold across three essential pillars – consumer protection, consumer empowerment, and decarbonisation – ensuring a comprehensive and consumer-centric approach to the challenges and opportunities presented by the current energy environment.

The three dedicated sessions will comprehensively cover electricity, gas, and heating issues, with a sharp focus on implementing and reinforcing consumer rights. Among others, the exploration will extend to the concept of energy sharing, underlining collaborative approaches that amplify the impact of individual efforts. Together these topics serve as a compass for navigating the multifaceted landscape of consumer-driven innovation and the imperative to decarbonise residential energy consumption.

Discussions will also touch upon the CEER-BEUC 2030 ASPIRE Vision for Energy Consumers that envisions a transformative future where consumers not only comprehend the environmental impacts of their energy usage but are also equipped with the tools to independently evaluate the climate properties of various energy products, actions, or behaviours. This forward-looking vision aligns with a sustainable economy that delivers Affordability, Simplicity, Protection, Inclusiveness, Reliability, and Empowerment for all consumers.

Programme

Programme

14:00 - 14:05

Welcome/Opening

Speakers

Annegret Groebel

Annegret Groebel

CEER President, CEER
Biography
Annegret Groebel
CEER President, CEER

Dr Annegret Groebel is 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 has been CEER President since January 2019 and was a Vice President of CEER since 2012. She also has chaired the CEER Market Integrity 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. She is also involved in the work of the Independent Regulators Group (IRG) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

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14:05 - 14:10

Keynote Speech

Speakers

Baiba Miltoviča

Baiba Miltoviča

President of the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN), EESC, EESC
Biography
Baiba Miltoviča
President of the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN), EESC, EESC

Baiba Miltovica was appointed President of the “Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and Information Society” Section (TEN) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in 2020. At the same time, Ms Miltovica serves as Board Member of the Latvian National Association for Consumer Protection (LPIAA), member of the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC). In her previous mandate at the EESC, Ms Miltovica held a position as Vice-President of the Civil Society Organisations Group and was an active member of the TEN Section, the Single Market, Production and Consumption Section (INT) and the Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion Section (ECO) of the EESC.

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14:10 - 15:00

Session I: Reinforcing the Framework to Protect Consumers of all Shapes and Sizes

Speakers

Barbara Steenbergen

Barbara Steenbergen

Member of the IUT Executive Committee, International Union of Tenants
Biography
Barbara Steenbergen
Member of the IUT Executive Committee, International Union of Tenants

Barbara Steenbergen has been committed to tenant protection for more than 20 years. She started in 2001 as head of the presidential office of the German Tenants’ Union Deutscher Mieterbund in Berlin and as political coordinator for energy policy and international affairs. In 2007, the General Assembly of the International Union of Tenants (IUT) elected her as head of the newly founded IUT Liaison Office to the European Union in Brussels, which she established in 2008. Since 2013 Barbara Steenbergen has been a member of the Executive Board of the IUT. Since 2020 she is Vice chair of the tenants’ association of Bonn, Germany.

She is responsible for the political relations and representation of the interests of the European tenant associations towards the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EU Council.

From 2009-2012 she chaired the European Housing Forum, the organisation of federations working in the field of housing represented in Brussels.

Since 2013 Barbara Steenbergen has been chair of the Stakeholder Forum of the European Responsible Housing Initiative and president of the jury of the European Responsible Housing Award, which is awarded every three years.

Since 2016 she has been a member of the civil society liaison group to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

In 2016 the EU Council appointed her as a member of the “EU Partnership for Affordable Housingv” in the “Pact of Amsterdam”.

Barbara is a German citizen and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Bonn, Germany and a bachelor’s degree in public administration.

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Guillaume Joly

Guillaume Joly

Senior Sustainable Buildings Officer, BEUC
Biography
Guillaume Joly
Senior Sustainable Buildings Officer, BEUC

Guillaume Joly was trained as a public policy designer and worked as a civil servant for French local authorities for fifteen years. Specialised in energy efficiency and residential retrofitting, he took part in the implementation and scaling-up of programmes on energy poverty alleviation and the structuration of energy advice services to citizens. His work as Technical Assistant in the Energy Team of C40, the worldwide network of Global Cities, allowed him to work with frontrunner cities from all continents. Working now for BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, he mobilises his expertise to best benefit the end beneficiaries of public policies and programmes, i.e. the consumers who undertake retrofitting work on their homes.

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Liana Cozigou

Liana Cozigou

Head of Legal and Consumer Affairs – Member of the board of directors & Ombudsman, CWaPE
Biography
Liana Cozigou
Head of Legal and Consumer Affairs – Member of the board of directors & Ombudsman, CWaPE

Appointed in February 2021, Liana Cozigou is Head of Legal and Consumer Affairs, Ombudsman and Member of the Board of Directors of the Walloon Regulatory Authority for Energy (CWaPE). She tackles energy issues on a daily basis to uphold the public interest and interest of consumers and ensure the good functioning of electricity and gas markets. As an ADR, she has been serving as vice-president of the national energy ombudsman network NEON since February 2021 and is active in the Belgian ombudsman network.
Liana graduated in Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and was admitted at the Brussels Bar in 2010. Specialising in energy law, she regularly assisted governments in the drafting, negotiation and adoption of new laws and regulations as well as in the implementation of EU Law. After four years acting in front of various Belgian courts, she joined the Belgian energy regulatory authority (CREG), providing legal and strategic advice to the President of the Board on all EU and national energy and strategic topics.
She represented CREG at EU level in CEER’s Customers and Retail Markets Working Group, European Policy Unit and Covid-19 ad-hoc Group, and at the Belgian level in the FORBEG Consumers’ Group.
On two occasions, she joined the staff of energy ministers in Belgium working on both energy and climate affairs, first in 2014 and then in 2017.

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15:00 - 16:00

Session II: Unleashing Consumers’ Potential to Drive the Transition

Speakers

Marit Serianna Stenødegård Hjerpseth

Marit Serianna Stenødegård Hjerpseth

Sectional Engineer in Customer Affairs & Network Regulation, NVE-RME
Biography
Marit Serianna Stenødegård Hjerpseth
Sectional Engineer in Customer Affairs & Network Regulation, NVE-RME

Marit Serianna Stenødegård Hjerpseth is a Sectional Engineer in Customer Affairs & Network Regulation at the Norwegian Energy Regulatory Authority – focusing on quality of electricity supply and prosumers. She has experience with national pilot-projects as well as projects requiring regulatory change related to energy sharing. She holds a Master of Science degree in Technology, specializing in Environmental Physics and Renewable Energy from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

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Rita Mota

Rita Mota

Chair of Retail Market Design Working Group, Eurelectric
Biography
Rita Mota
Chair of Retail Market Design Working Group, Eurelectric

With an academic background in economics, Rita is Chair of the Working Group Retail Market Design at EURELECTRIC and Deputy Director for Energy Policy Global Unit at EDP. Rita has 20 years’ experience in the energy sector, and expertise all across the value chain. in electricity, natural gas and hydrogen.
At EURELECTRIC, Rita’s role encompasses all aspects of electricity retail market design. She is currently focusing on the discussions around the upcoming new Network Code on Demand Response and the expert group on Consumer’s Empowerment.

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Stavroula Pappa

Stavroula Pappa

Policy Advisor, REScoop
Biography
Stavroula Pappa
Policy Advisor, REScoop

Stavroula Pappa is an EU-qualified lawyer specialised in Energy and Climate Law. She currently works as a Policy Advisor at REScoop.eu, the European Federation of Citizen Energy Cooperatives. In her role, she represents the Federation in European projects that aim to design enabling frameworks for energy communities in different EU Member States and explore avenues for citizens and energy communities to play a more active role in the energy system. Stavroula actively contributes to the advocacy work of the Federation, monitoring the progress of national legislation on energy communities and engaging in relevant EU files.

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16:00 - 17:00

Session III: Paving the Way for Decarbonised Households

Speakers

Gert De Block

Gert De Block

Secretary General, CEDEC
Biography
Gert De Block
Secretary General, CEDEC

Gert De Block is a Belgian national and is Secretary General of CEDEC since 1998. CEDEC is the European Federation of local energy companies, representing the interests of 2,000 local and regional energy and broadband companies across Europe, close to citizens and businesses, serving 100 million electricity, gas and district heating customers and broadband connections.
After initial work experiences as financial analyst and consultant on management information systems, Gert has been active in the public energy sector on Belgian & European level since 1992.
Gert holds a master degree in economic sciences and an MBA in financial sciences.

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Jane Dennett-Thorpe

Jane Dennett-Thorpe

Deputy Director for Net Zero Strategy, Ofgem
Biography
Jane Dennett-Thorpe
Deputy Director for Net Zero Strategy, Ofgem

Jane has been dedicated to addressing climate change and bringing forward the energy transition for over two decades, in a variety of roles. She has previously been Head of Evidence, the Deputy Head of Science, and Head of Industrial Energy Efficiency in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Since 2019 she has worked in the GB energy regulator Ofgem. She led the development of Ofgem’s Decarbonisation Action Plan. She has also set up the Regulatory Energy Transition Accelerator, now hosted at the IEA, to help energy regulators around the world provide more effective responses to the climate challenge. She leads cross cutting strategic work to ensure the regulatory regimes can meet the net zero challenges in particular through teams focussed on hydrogen and economy-wide electrification; as well as ensuring regulatory regimes are driving sector preparations for inevitable climate change. She recently led currently (jointly with the Chief Economic Advisor) a review of the future of network regulation.

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Mélanie Bourgeois

Mélanie Bourgeois

EU Policy, Media & Campaigns, Energy Cities
17:00 - 17:30

Key Takeaways

Speakers

Alejandro Ulzurrun

Alejandro Ulzurrun

Head of Unit B1, DG ENER, European Commission
Biography
Alejandro Ulzurrun
Head of Unit B1, DG ENER, European Commission

Alejandro Ulzurrun is the head of the Consumers, Local Initiatives, Just Transition unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, where he has previously been in charge of the Energy Security and Safety unit and the Inter-institutional Relations and Communication unit. He joined the European Commission in 1997, holding different responsibilities in several of its departments (Enterprise, Communication, External Relations) and its Secretariat-General. Between 2010 and 2014, he was head of unit in the Commission’s Spokesperson’s Service.

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Dave Keating

Dave Keating

Biography
Dave Keating

Dave Keating is an American-European journalist in Brussels who moderates live events. He is the Brussels Correspondent for France 24 and a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council. He also writes for the New Statesman, Energy Monitor, IP Quarterly, Euractiv, Forbes and World Politics Review. Previously he was the editor of EuropeanVoice.com, a side publication of The Economist. He is ranked as the number one EU social media influencer for 2023, coming in second in 2022 and third in 2021 and 2020. Before arriving in Brussels in 2010, Dave covered the boardrooms of London, the halls of the US Congress in Washington, the cafes of Paris, the politics of Prague, the courtrooms of Chicago and the streets of New York City.

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Documents
11.04.2024

Agenda CCC

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11.04.2024

CEER Customer Conference 2024 - Final Report

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