Minutes Executive Committee Falkenberg, 21st July 2003, 14:00 – 18:00 Participants: Jean-Pierre CATALAN Bernhard PELIKAN Christer SÖDERBERG
EDF ÖVFK SERO
David MILLER Christine LINS Gema SAN BRUNO
President ESHA Secretary General ESHA Project Manager ESHA
The Executive Committee met in Falkenberg, Sweden on the 21st July 2003. David Miller opened the session at 14:00 by welcoming the Executive Committee. Three additional participants – Mr. Jacobson and Mr. & Mrs. Davidson - were present during the first part of the meeting regarding Hidroenergia 2004 organisation. Christine Lins invited everyone to introduce himself/herself and presented the agenda for the meeting, which was adopted. The following summarises the main points discussed during the meeting: 1- Hidroenergia 2004 Christer Soderberg, SERO, introduced to the Executive Committee three of his collaborators in the Hidroenergia 2004 organisation: Jan-Ake Jacobson, Managing Director of Falkenberg Energi utility and Vice-President of SERO Hydropower, and Mr & Mrs Davidson, members of SERO board and small hydropower producers. Hidroenergia 2004 will take place in Falkenberg, Sweden, the 17-19 June 2004. Organisation is ongoing and several issues were discussed. In concrete (1) Organisation of a Committee ESHA-SERO, (2) Scientific Committee, (3) Call for papers, (4) Competing conferences, (5) Logotype for Hidroenergia 2004, (6) Main sessions at the conference, (7) Session leaders, (8) Early invitation and addresses, (9) Cooperation with a branch magazine, (10) Marketing on the conference, (11) Key actors to invite, (12) Key topics, (13) Visiting other similar conferences, (14) Conference organizer, (15) Social arrangements, (16) Technical visits, (17) Local transports, (18) Budget and conference fees, (19) Role of the European Commission, (20) Work sharing ESHA-SERO, (21) Priority work to be done during August-September, (21) Check out conference site and (22) Simultaneous translation. David Miller underlined that SERO is in charge of organising the conference and ESHA will assist in this regard giving advice when needed. Since the list of issues to discuss was too long, some of them were discussed next morning, 22nd July, as the Executive Committee was still present. In fact, ESHA Executive Committee met Lotta Ericsson, the
manager of the Elite Hotel Strandbaden, conference’s venue, on the 22nd morning in order to check the different options for the organisation of the conference and the exhibition. It was agreed that: There is a Conference Committee composed of 5 people from SERO, which is responsible for everything unless something is delegated to ESHA. There will be a Scientific Committee to evaluate the papers of the conference, which will include real scientific people. The conference will have several sessions plus a round table at the end. It was stressed that the topics of the sessions should be adapted to the reality and that after each session the chairperson should summarize the session. The conference should represent as much as possible the small hydropower (SHP) sector (associations, producers, manufacturers, politicians, researchers, etc) and nationalities around the world guaranteeing a balance both in topics of the presentations and nationality of the speakers. The official language of the conference will be English with translation services into French and German unless the budget indicates that this will be impossible. ESHA will be in charge of disseminating the information on Hidroenergia 2004, first announcement, call for papers and programme, at international level. ESHA has some extensive contacts including the press and the political sphere, communication tools such as the ESHA web site and the ESHA Newsletter and it is part of European funded projects such as Splash or Thematic Network. The Elite Hotel Strandbaden in Falkenberg will be the conference venue. It has several conference rooms and facilities very suitable for Hidroenergia 2004 conference and exhibition. The entire Hotel will be at ESHA disposal. The Hotel will take care of the participants’ registration as well as the transportation from the Airport to the Hotel and vice versa. Christine Lins suggested a program for the social events related to the conference: Wednesday 17th June 2004: Welcome Reception Thursday 18th June 2004: Gala Dinner Friday 19th June 2004: Informal Dinner Saturday 20th June 2004: Visits. It was suggested that since Falkenberg aims at 100% RES deployment, it would be interesting to have a RES tour including some of the RES technologies available in Falkenberg such as biomass, wind and solar thermal.
In conclusion it was agreed that by the beginning of September 2003 there should be a call for papers & first announcement as well as a schedule for further actions (scientific committee, programme, proceedings, etc) should be ready. The language of the call for papers should be decided and proceedings should be ready before the conference takes place.
ESHA asked for a formal letter from SERO expressing its commitment in organising Hidroenergia 2004. 2- Discussion Paper “Financial Returns & Commercial Security for Small Hydropower Producers” David Miller presented the updated version of the proposal to the Commission for Community Guidelines concerning “Financial Returns & Commercial Security for Small Hydropower Producers The proposal which is based on the calculation of adequate returns for the full range of small hydro installations. Using a Profitability index and Discounted Cash Flow, and the internalisation of external costs into the selling prices of conventional generation , the proposal recognises the difficulties presented to the European Commission by Article 4 of the Directive and is intended to assist them in particular regarding the proposal for a “Community Framework” on support schemes for electricity produced from RES. The proposal is based on the use of a “Profitability Index” in conjunction with “Discounted Cash Flow” to compute the necessary minimum price per kilowatt hour for an installation of any size, cost and performance under given economic conditions. The goal is to ensure that the European Commission recognises the problem of security and profitability for SHP investors and that they should, through the medium of Guidelines, get the Member States to think about it. ESHA would like to convince the European Commission of the need for an adequate and secure return , which remains stable in the medium-long term. ESHA has the intention to present its proposal and start dialogs with the European Commission in September 2003. The Executive Committee agreed on the relevance of the issue since the current system is not very stable and therefore investment is diverted to other ventures. The Executive Committee showed great interest in the model and agreed on the general principle of the proposed method. Nevertheless, it was highlighted that the document needs more reflection and additional polish. Each member of the Executive Committed pointed out his or her comments and suggestions. ESHA Secretariat took notes on the different modifications suggested by the Executive Committee members and David Miller will prepare a more definitive document incorporating such changes which mainly affect some definitions and figures included in the model but not the basic essence and principle of the method.
3- Miscellaneous Besides the two main topics of the Executive Committe meeting mentioned above, the following issues were also discussed:
Thematic Network activities: Christine Lins informed the Executive Committee on the meeting of the engineering working group to be held in Brussels on the 25th July and the Workshop on the first results of Thematic Network activities to be held in Bolzano, Italy, on the 18th September 2003. Gema San Bruno is in charge of this project and responsible for the organisation of both meetings. The Executive Committee Members were encouraged not only to participate but also to disseminate information about the event on a broad basis. ESHA General Assembly: Christine Lins informed the Executive Committee on the General Assembly that will be held in Bolzano, Italy, on the 19th September and where general elections of the ESHA Governing Board will take place. Attendance is more than recommended. Hydro 2003 Conference: ESHA will be present at the Hydro 2003 Conference organised by Hydropower & Dams in Croatia on the 3rd to 6th November 2003. ESHA will have a brief presentation on the Thematic Network on SHP project. Christine Lins will contact Hydropower & Dams to check the possibility of organising an ESHA cocktail party on the 5th November afternoon. Christine Lins also pointed out the intention of organising a Thematic Network meeting seizing the numerous representatives of the hydropower sector. Berlin Conference on RES Policy review: Christine Lins informed the Executive Committee on the conference that will take place on 19-21 January 2004 regarding RES policy at international level and which EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council, is organising. This conference is being developed at the highest political level. Christine Lins encouraged the Executive Committee to think about the SHP message to Berlin. No further issues were discussed and the agenda was completed. The President thanked the delegates for their attendance and adjourned the meeting. Due to the lengthy discussion of the topics on the agenda , the meeting was prolonged to Tuesday morning (22nd) from 10:30 to 12:30. As a courtesy, the co-organisers of Hidroenergia 2004 conducted a SHP visit in Falkenberg after the meeting was concluded on 21st evening for all Executive Committee meeting participants.
ESHA Secretariat 23 July 2003 Brussels BELGIUM