CEER Annual Conference 2023
Meet Our Speakers

Welcome/Opening

Annegret Groebel
CEER President

 

Dr Annegret Groebel is Director of International Relations at the German Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA). Dr Groebel has worked for BNetzA since 1998. She has been CEER President since January 2019 and was a Vice President of CEER since 2012. She also has chaired the CEER Market Integrity and Transparency (MIT) Working Group since 2013. She is a member of the Board of Regulators of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). Dr Groebel has a PhD in Economics from the University of Mannheim. She is also involved in the work of the Independent Regulators Group (IRG) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

 

 

 

Session One: Un-addressed issues in Electricity Market Design?

Moderator: Wolfgang Urbantschitsch

Vice President, CEER

Dr Urbantschitsch is the Executive Director of the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Energy. Since 2013 he has been Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Energy Community. From 2001 until 2016, he was Head of the Legal Department of E-Control.

From 2011 until 2016, he was a Member of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) Board of Appeal.

Before joining E-Control, Mr Urbantschitsch worked as a legal advisor at the Austrian Federal Constitutional Court, the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Telecommunication and as a research assistant.

Dr Urbantschitsch is the author of numerous publications on energy law as well as constitutional and administrative law. In addition, he is a lecturer at universities and other institutions.

He obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Graz/Austria.

 

Tahir Kapetanovic

Vice-Chair of the Board, ENTSO-E

Tahir Kapetanovic is Head of System Operation and Vice President International at Austrian Power Grid, the TSO of Austria. In ENTSO-E he is Vice-Chair of the Board, where earlier he chaired System Operations Committee, managed development of operational network codes and regional TSOs’ coordination. In TSC and System Operation Region Central he is member of management boards and previously chaired TSC Operational Board.

Tahir has over 35 years of experience in electricity transmission, energy markets regulation, banking sector, electrical equipment industries and academic research. He is certified operator of Austrian transmission system and licensed trader on EPEX Spot and EEX power exchanges.

 

 

 

 

Pablo Hevia-Koch
Head of Renewable Integration and Secure Electricity, IEA

 

Pablo Hevia-Koch is the Head of the Renewable Integration and Secure Electricity unit. In this role, he oversees work on the integration of renewables in power systems, electricity security, power grids, and electricity market design, focused on both emerging and established economies. Prior to joining the IEA, Dr Hevia-Koch worked on international energy policy and long-term scenarios, with a focus on Asia and Europe, particularly China and India.

 

 

 

Christine Materazzi Wagner
Chair of the Electricity Working Group, CEER/ACER

 

Christine Materazzi-Wagner graduated as an electrical engineer and has been working in the energy sector for more than 25 years. Since 2011, she works as Director of Electricity at E-Control, Austria’s national energy regulator. Since 2019, she chairs the ACER and CEER Electricity Working Groups, tackling various regulatory issues such as system operation, network development, market integration and adequacy. Before joining E-Control, Christine’s work covered engineering, development cooperation, research and management consulting tasks, as well as power generation, renewables and smart grids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hans Kreisel
Chairman, GEODE

 

Hans has more than 20 years’ experience within the energy industry with previous positions as CEO of Skellefteå Kraft Group, General Director of Sydkraft , CEO of E.ON Gas Sweden, Managing Director at E.ON Gastransport in Germany and as member of the E.ON Top Executive Group. He holds a degree in law from the University of Lund. 
Since 2020, Hans has been the CEO of Nordion Energi, a company that was formed with the aim to drive the transition to 100% green energy. 
In Sweden, he is also a Member of the Electrification Commission, an advisory body set up by the Swedish government. 
Since 2017, he serves as the Chairman of GEODE a European association representing local distribution companies of gas and electricity.  

 

 

 

Session Two: Advancing Decarbonisaed/Low carbon Gases: what is their role?

 

Moderator: Csilla Bartok

Acting Head of Gas Dept., ACER

 

Csilla BARTÓK joined ACER as senior officer for Framework Guidelines and Network Codes for Gas in 2011. Since 2021, she is Gas Markets & Energy Retail Team Leader. In 2023, she became Acting Head of Infrastructure, Gas and Retail Department. 
Csilla is responsible for the energy infrastructure regulation (TEN-E), gas markets (market monitoring and network codes regulation) and energy retail market monitoring activities. Before joining ACER, Csilla worked at the European Commission’s DG Energy as policy officer, at the OECD as competition and trade analyst and at DG Competition as merger case handler.
Csilla holds master’s degrees in economics, international economics and political sciences, as well as an executive MBA.

 

Emmanuelle Wargon

President, CRE

Ms. Wargon has been appointed as President of the French Energy Regulatory Authority in August 2022 for a non-renewable six-year term. After graduating, Ms. Emmanuelle Wargon spent most of her professional career in public services within independent government institutions and central administrations.

She began her career in 1997 at the Court of Auditors, where she was first an auditor and then a referendary advisor. She was then appointed technical advisor to the cabinet of Mr. Bernard Kouchner, Minister Delegate for Health. In 2002, she joined the French Agency for the Sanitary Safety of Health Products, then the university hospital center Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris before heading the cabinet of Mr. Martin HIRSCH, then High Commissioner for Active Solidarity against Poverty, and later High Commissioner for Youth.

In 2010, she was first Secretary General of the Ministries in charge of Social Affairs and then General Delegate for Employment and Vocational Training at the Ministry of Labor. She later joined the private sector in 2015 as General Manager of Public Affairs, Communication and CSR of the Danone Group. In October 2018, she was called into the government of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe as Secretary of State to the Minister of Ecological Transition and Solidarity (Mr. François de RUGY then Ms. Elisabeth BORNE). In July 2020, she was appointed Minister Delegate in charge of Housing to the Minister of Ecological Transition Mrs. Barbara POMPILI in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex.

 

Anders Mathiasson
President, European Biogas Association

 

Anders Mathiasson started his professional career in the construction sector after a master's degree in civil engineering. He entered the energy and gas industry just over 25 years ago. From the mid-1990s, he worked as Managing Director of marketing and sales at the energy company Öresundskraft in Southern Sweden, then as CEO of the Swedish Gas Association between 2004 and 2016. These were important years when the market for biomethane in Sweden took off.
Today he is an independent consultant and senior advisor to the Swedish Gas Association. He has been a board member of the European Biogas Association (EBA) since 2016 and was elected EBA’s President in May 2022.

 

 

 

Ilaria Conti
Head of Gas & Hydrogen Area, Florence School of Regulation

 

Ilaria Conti is the Head of Gas and Hydrogen at the Florence School of Regulation. She specialises in EU institutional relations and energy regulation. During her 9 years working in Brussels, she played pivotal roles at EFET, including founding EFET Italy and contributing to the development of key EU Regulations and Directives such as the Third Energy Package, the RES Directive, EMIR, REMIT, and Security of Supply regulation. Through the facilitation of the exchange of best practices, she aided in the implementation process of EU energy regulation in several EU countries. Before joining FSR, she served as Institutional and Regulatory Affairs Manager at ENOI S.P.A. She currently directs the FSR Specialised Training on the Regulation of Gas markets and the FSR Clean Molecules course.

 

 

Thomas Bobinger

Policy Officer for the EU Internal Market, Federation of German Consumer Organisations

 

Mr Bobinger is Policy Officer for the EU Internal Market at the Brussels office of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband – vzbv) – focusing on consumer rights in the energy, sustainability and telecommunications sector. A German national, Mr Bobinger holds a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University and a LLM in Law and Politics of International Security from the Free University of Amsterdam. Before Mr Bobinger joined vzbv in 2016, he worked for five years for a governmental affairs company in Brussels.