Today Azerbaijan Energy Regulatory Agency (AERA) and the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) held a meeting to discuss possible cooperation between the two regulators.
Organized by AERA and the British Embassy in Azerbaijan, the meeting aimed at discussing and reviewing common ground for starting cooperation between two regulatory authorities, as well as benefiting from Ofgem’s expertise in the future.
Sam Rea, Senior Manager at Ofgem and Samir Akhundov, Chairman of AERA Board opened the meeting by welcoming the participants.
After Elmar Gulaliyev, a specialist of the Strategic planning and innovations division at AERA delivered a presentation on "Azerbaijan: Introduction to Electric Power system and challenges", the meeting continued with the Q&A session that allowed to give more insight into the current structure of the Azerbaijan’s electricity market, existing challenges in the power system, reforms in the electricity sector and target model of the electricity market in coming years.
Simon Wilde, the director for Analysis and assurance at Ofgem, gave an overview to the GB energy system, Ofgem’s role - mandate and approach, Ofgem’s current priorities, key players in the GB market, Britain’s energy system and components, the key lessons we have learnt in energy regulation over the last 25 years and UK’s plans to cut carbon emissions set out in the newest heat and building strategy.
Elchin Mirzoyev, a specialist of the Liberalization in energy field and investment attraction division at AERA, focused in his presentation on network regulation in Azerbaijan followed by an exhaustive Q&A session with collegues from Ofgem.
James Veaney of Ofgem, talked about RIIO (Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs) that allows Ofgem to set price controls for the gas and electricity network companies of Great Britain. He underlined that this model provides a safe and reliable service, value for money, maximise performance, operate efficiently, innovate and ensure the resilience of networks for current and future customers of Ofgem.
The sides set out how they view the next steps of the mutual collaboration and agreed to hold the next online meeting in November of the current year.
About AERA
The Azerbaijan Energy Regulatory Agency (AERA) regulates and inspects issues related to electricity, gas and heat supply. Established with the Presidential Decree №1750 by the 22nd of December 2017, the Agency operates as a public legal entity under the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan.
About Ofgem
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of Gas Supply (Ofgas).
