Published: Thu, 08 March 2018
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Seán Kelly MEP and Leader of the Fine Gael Delegation in the European Parliament this week hosted the launch of a new project, which aims to increase the use of renewable energy technology, EU-SysFlex. Mr Kelly was joined by Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, as well as representatives of Euractiv, EirGrid, SONI Ltd., EDF Energy and the European Commission at the Brussels event.
The EU-Sysflex project will identify the needs of the electrical system, provide practical improvements, and propose a long-term roadmap in order to facilitate the large-scale integration of renewable energy technologies in the coming years.
As the EPP’s shadow rapporteur on the Renewable Energy Directive, Mr Kelly’s work strongly aligns with the goals of the EU-Sysflex project:
“I was pleased in January when Parliament backed our proposed 35% target for renewable energy. Given the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, combined with the evidence that has since been presented about the falling costs of renewable energy, it is clear that the Council and Commission’s proposed 27% target was outdated,” he said.
“The strong political message from Parliament is clear – we need more ambition.”
The Ireland South MEP highlighted the importance of projects such as Sysflex as we move away from a system based on centralised fossil or nuclear energy and towards one that has more self-consumers, more renewable energy communities, all generating, consuming, storing, and selling electricity to the grid.
“The project looks at how we manage the integration of such a level of Renewable Energy into the system. It will identify the needed improvements to the market design to cater for this increase, introduce new practices, and enhance system-modelling tools. Additionally, the project will put forward a roadmap for the European energy system and outline how it can meet the challenges ahead – this is extremely important.”
“The Sysflex project partners have already accepted that our energy system will continue to have more and more renewable energy, and are now looking to develop the measures that will allow our grid to handle it,” he added.
Photo Credit: © European Union 2018
