| Press Release 19-04 CEER Elects New Vice Presidents CEER also publishes two important regulatory papers: Consultation Paper on Regulatory Challenges for a Sustainable Gas Sector and a Conclusions Paper on New Services and DSO Involvement On 19 March 2019, the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER)1, the voice of Europe’s energy regulators, elected two new Vice Presidents, Rolands Irklis and Koen Locquet, to the CEER Board, thereby filling two vacancies that have arisen. From left to right in the photograph, the CEER Board now consists of: - Vice President Martin Šik, ERU (Czech regulator);
- Vice President Koen Locquet, CREG (Belgian regulator);
- President Annegret Groebel, BNetzA (German regulator);
- Vice President Anne Vadasz Nilsson, Ei (Swedish regulator);
- Vice President Rolands Irklis, PUC (Latvian regulator);
- Vice President Wolfgang Urbantschitsch, E-Control (Austrian regulator).  As part of CEER’s ongoing work in consumer interests, we have also today published a Public Consultation on Regulatory Challenges for a Sustainable Gas Sector which seeks to identify what European energy regulators can do to foster a sustainable gas sector, focusing on:
- regulatory challenges for renewable gases;
- infrastructure investments and regulation; and
- the challenges that may require adapting the gas market design. CEER looks forward to input from interested parties to the paper by Friday 17 May, helping to inform our conclusions paper later this year. Furthermore, following earlier public engagement, CEER publishes today a Conclusions Paper on New Services and DSO Involvement, which aims to contribute to the debate by providing clarity on energy regulators’ positions regarding system services in the fields of energy storage, direct consumer services, data management, and services outside of the energy sector. The paper concludes that, as neutral market facilitators, distribution system operators are vital in facilitating these developments, but at the same time they should typically not crowd-out the provision of these services by the competitive marketplace. Welcoming the new CEER Vice Presidents and public papers, President Groebel said: “I warmly welcome our two new Vice Presidents to the CEER Board. I look forward to working with the Board and all our energy regulators in facilitating best-practice regulation which benefits Europe’s energy consumers, as we can see exemplified today with two important CEER papers on the gas sector and on new services related to energy distribution.
Brussels, 22 March 2019 Ends - see Notes for Editors | 
