Samir Akhundov, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Energy Regulatory Agency (AERA), participated in the 23rd Annual Conference and General Assembly of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA), held on April 27-28 in Bratislava, Slovakia. This year’s event was particularly significant as it marked the 25th anniversary of ERRA. The conference was attended by 300 delegates representing 124 regulatory bodies, companies, and organizations from 49 countries, including heads of regulatory authorities from member countries, leading consultants, and academics.
The conference’s overarching theme was “Transforming Energy Policies – Adapting Energy Regulation” and the agenda analyzed both the electricity and gas sectors.
Samir Akhundov chaired the session titled “Transforming Transmission and Distribution Networks”. During the session, topics such as infrastructure investment, including cross-border projects, smart grids and digitalization, network tariff structures, and incentive regulation were discussed.
In total, six sessions were held during the conference, covering topics such as the transformation of electricity generation and storage, price and non-price regulation in the gas sector in light of the geopolitical situation in Europe, gas trading and transmission in Central Europe, regulation of nuclear energy, transformation of transmission and distribution networks, retail supply and customer engagement, regulatory independence and governance challenges.
Established in Bucharest on December 11, 2000, the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) is a platform for knowledge and best-practice sharing in energy regulation, bringing together 48 regulatory authorities from 44 countries. AERA has had a longstanding relationship with ERRA and has been its Associate Member since April 2018.
