Our expertise

In countries where the energy markets have been liberalized, generation and supply are unbundled from transmission and distribution. The different services are carried out by different companies. The network companies are technical monopolies. This implies that gas and electricity of competing traders or shippers are transported through the same infrastructure. In order to avoid favoring, network companies are regulated.

In countries without energy liberalization regulation often focuses on the entire energy chain from the supply side to end customers.

The energy transition leads to new challenges for policy makers as well as regulators. These include approaches to:

• management of the increasing energy production from renewable resources.
• timely reinforcements of the transmission and distribution grids.
• gradually integrations of demand side management response as well as (cost-effective) energy storage.

D-Cision can assist you with the (economic and technical) assessment of policy choices and the development of new and innovative market models of local (sustainable) energy production and system optimization. We dispose of several tools for quantifying the impact of system changes, renewable energy options, smart grids as well as regulatory interventions.

D-Cision assists policy makers and regulators in the design and implementation of energy markets.

The energy markets of different countries are increasingly technically and economically integrated. D-Cision may assist in the performance of market integration studies, including an assessment of the value of investments in additional interconnection capacity. Morever, D-Cision has hands-on experience in the design of appropriate congestion management schemes if needed.

In the recent decade, the major challenges for power markets were the implementation of retail competition, the integration of renewables and the international market integration. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the fossil fuel prices and electricity prices have dropped significantly, removing the incentives to invest in new power plants and challenging the profitability of existing plant. For this reason, recently the discussion about capacity mechanisms has remerged, mainly driven by the rapid growth of renewable generation with zero marginal cost (wind, solar photovoltaics). In each area D-Cision may be of service.

Countries which are in a process of restructuring the energy industry may also benefit from the experience of D-Cision. We have contributed to the design of energy markets in various countries. D-Cision may assist you to develop a restructuring plan, taking into account the historical context and the national characteristics and needs. Examples range from the implementation of market reform, the development of policy documents and legislation and the design of regulation favourable for attracting new investments.

Developing a clear strategy for network reinforcements is of great importance for network operators. Normally, assets have long lifetimes and should be robust against sudden changes in network usage.

Moreover, there is increasing desire to introduce more flexibility in the grids. Demand response by means of the smart grid is presently a hot topic. A balance between investments in the grids, investments in energy storage facilities as well as investments in facilities for demand response should be sought.

D-Cision can assist you to find clear answers to these questions. We help you to systematically explore possible future developments. D-Cision disposes of several simulation models, which can be used to quantify the efficiency of various strategies.

Grid and energy tariffs serve to cover the costs of the energy supply. In liberalised markets only network tariffs are set whereas the commodity rates are subject to competitive pricing. However, in other markets integrated tariffs are set for production, transport and distribution.

Ideally, energy tariffs are cost reflective and sufficient to recover the full costs. Moreover, tariffication approaches often envisage to send appropriate economic signals to the customers. However, the process of tariff setting itself may also be complicated by political objectives like the inclusion of taxes and support schemes for renewable energy production.

Energy tariffication is as much an art as a science. The latter holds even more for economic regulation, the administrative approach to provide proper remuneration signals for the energy and/or network companies.

D-Cision is experienced in calculating energy and network tariffs. Furthermore, D-Cision may help you to design and implement a suitable approach for economic and quality regulation of the energy industry.

The energy system of the future can be characterized by the adjectives: complex, distributed, sustainable and smart. Through the involvement of amongst others regional and municipal authorities as well as local collectives of citizens many initiatives are arising with high ambitions. The technological, environmental and financial consequences are however not always clear in advance.

The following questions regularly arise:

• What are the most attractive technologies for energy saving, renewable energy and energy storage?
• How suitable is a province, municipality or region for local or regional energy generation?
• What are the costs and benefits of a specific smart grid project?
• And what infrastructure costs are involved?
• Which options yield the highest benefits for society?

D-Cision can assist you to quantify the effects of the different options. We have developed several tools to formulate clear answers to the questions above.

When performing asset management of infrastructures - like electricity and natural gas grids - risk management is of crucial importance. An assessment has to be made between different business values like: reliability, safety and costs.

Risk management seems to be simple but is in practice quite complicated. Many questions arise: How can one take for that all risks are in the picture? How may the various risks be prioritized allowing the most important ones to be treated first? And which countermeasure is preferred to mitigate the risk? Or is it better to accept the risk? And how should we deal with the public opinion and the regulator?

D-Cision can assist you with implementing and optimizing of risk based asset management. We dispose of an extended toolkit and hands-on experience of the risk factors for the energy networks. By means of the application of risk-based decision making we help you in order to choose the right solution under uncertain circumstances.

Gas grid companies are responsible for the safety of people and the environment while transporting and distributing natural gas. Government regulation often compels the grid companies to implement a safety management system.

D-Cision can help you in setting up such safety management systems and/or improving the safety performance. Business processes concerning safety are independently reviewed and where relevant these processes are optimized. The services offered range from performing safety audits to a redesign of safety procedures and subsequent implementation.

D-Cision can assist you in analysing the cause of a gas incident or accident. We assist not only in the technical investigation but also analyse the organizational aspects (in)directly related to the occurrence of the incident.