85th General Assembly of the World Energy Council Austria

ENERGY COMMUNITIES / 85th General Assembly of the World Energy Council Austria

This year’s General Assembly of WEC Austria took place at the premises of BIG – the Austrian Federal Real Estate Company in Vienna’s Prater district.

One of the main topics was energy communities, which have already gained considerable importance in Austria – far more so than in most other European countries. In particular, the new legal provisions make it possible to generate and share electricity collectively with even less administrative effort and greater efficiency.

A distinguished panel of experts explored the current challenges and strategic development opportunities offered by this new form of collective electricity supply. Moderated by WEC President Michael Strugl, the discussion featured Benedikt Ennser, Head of Section at the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism (BMWET); Gerald Beck, Managing Director of BIG; and David Berger, Head of Department at Wien Energie. The panel concluded on an optimistic note, highlighting how digitalisation and energy storage will provide further momentum for the wider adoption of energy communities.

Following the official agenda of the WEC Executive Committee and Board meeting, a distinguished guest, Klemen Dragaš, President of WEC Slovenia, shared his strategic outlook on Slovenia’s energy sector. Key medium- and long-term priorities include expanding the backbone grid infrastructure of both transmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators (DSOs), as well as increasing the share of domestically generated electricity. In addition, the possibility of building a new nuclear unit alongside the existing nuclear power plant in Krško is being discussed very seriously in both political and public circles.

The event concluded with a highly engaging presentation by the “Market Design 2050” working group of our Young Energy Professionals (YEP) Forum. The presentation explored an ambitious yet entirely plausible range of future scenarios, developed in collaboration with E-Control.