Energy risk — energy demand
The perpetual demand for energy created by Europe is akin to a ravenous beast with an insatiable appetite. Notwithstanding the poetic simile, where Europe is to get its future energy supply from and how to secure these sources are very real concerns. The 'Risk of energy availability: common corridors for Europe supply security' (REACCESS) project investigated various routes (known as corridors) through which energy can be supplied to the EU-28. Project partners worked on ensuring maximum efficiency so that both primary and secondary sources can fulfil the EU demand. REACCESS looked at technical, economic and environmental issues relating to current and future energy corridors. These features were inserted into a database associated to a geographical information system. The spatial distribution of these energy corridors was described and correlated to the main land use indicators for evaluating their impact. These energy corridors and their attributes were incorporated into multi-regional modelling tools, describing the energy system and the energy commodity trade of European and other countries. This tool represents in detail recent and possible future developments of the 'energy corridor' system that brings energy from suppliers to consumers. Compared to the most often used trade representations, it also maintains and valorises the commodity route spatial characteristics, in addition to the technological, economic and environmental ones. A techno-economic risk parameter is assigned to each corridor, reflecting the different reliability levels of the country where the corridor originates or through which it transits. Another innovation in the REACCESS methodology was that security indicators were built into the model, with the aim of constructing the least risky scenarios ex ante. REACCESS assessed multiple means of supply, via both land and sea, including pipelines, railways, terminals, ships and other means of transport. Taking into account regional typologies, factors such as distance of energy source and energy type (oil, petrol, electricity, hydrogen, coal etc.), the project developed both long- and short-term supply route scenarios. Project aims are in line with the European Communication on security of energy supply and international cooperation, strengthening the external dimension of the EU energy policy.
Keywords
Energy supply, primary source, risk, corridors, geographical information system, modelling, route scenario
