Retrospective ENERDAY 2024 - 18th International Conference on Energy Economics and Technology

This year's „ENERDAY - International Conference on Energy Economics and Technology" was yet another successful conference in the now 18-year history of our event series. Under the theme „Exploring Energy Demand Dynamics", 123 participants from academia and industry gathered at the Lecture Hall Centre of the TU Dresden on the 12th of April 2024 to enhance their knowledge through exciting presentations on current topics, discuss research findings and of course socialise with one another.

The various thematic presentations provided a comprehensive look at the complex of topics related to energy demand. Particular emphasis was placed on demand-side flexibility, which is crucial for the development of renewable sources of energy and will characterise the energy markets of the future. The urgency of expanding the digital infrastructure was emphasised as was the importance of short-term price reactions on the demand side.

The conference kicked off with the first keynote speech by Maria Jarolin, head of the internal think tank „System of the Future" at 50Hertz. She spoke about the necessity and possibilities of making electricity demand more flexible in order to ensure grid stability despite the electrification of industry, mobility and heat supply. Her presentation was based on the 50Hertz study „The Power of Flex".

Prof. Dr. Russell McKenna of the Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich moderated the second keynote session. In his presentation „Exploring Residential Energy Demand Dynamics in the Context of the Energy Transition" he provided insights into studies on the decarbonisation of Europe. He emphasised that the construction sector is a key driver, with autonomous residential buildings, regulatory frameworks and the use of decentralised energy systems offering great potential for decarbonisation.

After a day full of informative presentations and lively discussions, ENERDAY 2024 came to a close with the conference dinner, which was once again held at the Spitzhaus in Radebeul. During this dinner, the enerWARD and Best Presentation Award were announced.

The enerWARD is granted to outstanding Bachelor's and Diplom/Master's theses written at our chair. The winning students are also given the opportunity to present their work at ENERDAY. This year, the enerWARD was given to Christoph Sperling for his thesis entitled „Corporate Green Bonds: Determinants" focused on the capital-intensive challenges companies are facing in the context of the energy transition.

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The Best Presentation Award recognises outstanding presentations by young researchers at ENERDAY. A committee consisting of representatives of the Gesellschaft für Energiewirtschaft und Energiepolitik (GEE), enerCONNECT e.V. and the organising institutions nominated Veronika Lenivova (Fraunhofer IEG) for her presentation „Techno-economic analysis of long-distance hydrogen transport via high-voltage cables and pipelines: North Sea case study" and Jorge Sánchez Canales (Hertie School) for his presentation „Identifying elasticities in autocorrelated time series using causal graphs" as this year's award winners.

As after ENERDAY is always before ENERDAY, we would like to draw your attention to our new ENERDAY newsletter, for which you can subscribe here:
https://tu-dresden.de/bu/wirtschaft/bwl/ee2/tagungen/enerday-newsletter/index
In future, all conference-related information will be sent out via this newsletter.

The Chair of Energy Economics would like to thank all the speakers and participants for their contributions to this successful day and is already looking forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces to the 19th ENERDAY on the 4th of April 2025. Special acknowledgements go to our keynote speakers and sponsors 50Hertz Transmission GmbH and SachsenEnergie.