Merry Christmas from the BEC team, David, John and Tina. Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading our newsletter, we hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. Find our last energy sector update for the year below. We’ll be back with our next update in February 2019.

It's been fantastic running our second Asia-Pacific Energy Leaders' Summit. With more than 250 delegates and 34 keynote speakers from all over the globe this was undoubted an outstanding event. We've received great feedback and want to thank all our speakers and investors for making the Summit a great success. Please find here some pictures capturing some of the highlights. Videos and presentations will be available soon. In the meantime, we would like to share the Summit's CEO roundtable communique and other news around the Summit.

Our Asia-Pacific Energy Leader’s Summit is the must attend event before the 2018 conference calendar draws to a close. The programme features Ministers, international speakers from Amazon, ARUP, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Daikin, Uber and other innovators from Silicon Valley and the Asia-Pacific. You definitely want to hear from this line-up. Our keynote speakers are keen to share ideas and best practice with you. Register now.

What do nanotechnology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and robotics have in common — and, more importantly, what do they have to do with you and the energy sector? Join international speaker Kaila Colbin for a startling look at the dramatic implications of exponential technologies.

Today energy supply is expected to be renewable, affordable and reliable. How do we meet these challenges? What is the future of energy in a low carbon world? We will still need large scale storage, we still need to be able to manufacture chemicals, we still need to be able to economically run heavy transport. Is Power-to-X key to the development of the next energy market generation? Andrew Clennett, the Founder and CEO of Hiringa Energy, shared with us his insights at our BEC lunchtime seminar.

The World Energy Council is currently working on the study “International Aspects for a Power-to-X roadmap” and is reaching out to experts in the field for an interview. Experts are ideally involved in current projects, which produce resource like hydrogen, methane or ammonia and can assess and validate the findings of the study. The study identifies countries, that are attractive locations for conversion technologies and might also have the potential to build up Power-to-X export industries which could help in creating a global market for green energy resources in a future low-carbon world

Evolving from 10 years of success as the Zayed Future Energy Prize, the UAE’s preeminent sustainability Prize undergoes a strategic refocus to become the Zayed Sustainability Prize. In a move to align more closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UAE’s developing national agenda, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has broadened its reach beyond renewable energy. Online submissions close on 9th August 2018.

The Minister of Energy and Resources recently appointed an expert panel of advisors who will provide peer and technical advice to the electricity price review. The review terms of reference is here. BEC believes competitive energy markets are the best means to deliver secure and reliable energy supplies at efficient prices, and that competition works best when barriers to market entry and exit are minimised.

The principle of supplier and technology neutrality is paramount as we consider regulatory changes. Energy systems are complex and interconnected. Government intervention to alter competitive market signals should be undertaken with caution. Policies that allow or force non-competitive outcomes (such as delivering a particular type of generation, technology, resource availability or fuel-type use) will shift investment patterns to the country’s overall detriment.

Unlocking greater consumer choice and participation requires efficient price signals that fully internalise and reflect costs. Without this, innovation cannot hope to deliver the outcomes sought, nor can appropriate investment decisions be made, including how to maintain system security. Consumers benefit most where prices reflect costs and the widest possible competition for new energy products and services is encouraged.