Major Dublin energy summit aiming for ‘power shift’ in sector

17 Sep 2015

Tomorrow (18 September), a number of major figures from the energy sector, both Irish and international, will be descending on the Mansion House, Dublin for the Powershift energy summit.

The Dublin energy summit is being hosted jointly by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) and ESB and will raise many issues, but will particularly challenge long-standing assumptions on energy and discuss how connectivity will shape the future of the energy industry and review how policy will impact it.

The concept of ‘smart cities’ is becoming an increasing topic of conversation among those developing technologies in the internet of things (IoT), whereby more efficient policies developed through data mining could make cities not only cheaper to run but better for those living in them.

Putting it into figures, a recent report has shown how climate-smart cities specifically could save as much as US$17trn in the world economy by 2050.

One of the speakers at the event has been leading much of this work here in Ireland, that being IBM’s Dr Eleni Pratsini, Director of IBM-Research Ireland.

Among the other names confirmed to speak at Powershift include Maroš Šefčovič , the vice-president for the Energy Union in the European Commission.

While from the business end of energy technology development, other speakers include Tesla’s vice-president for business development, Diarmuid O’Connell, and Nest’s head of energy partner products, Scott McGaraghan.

Speaking about some of the other topics that will be up for discussion, director general of the IIEA, Tom Arnold, said: “The Powershift Summit will discuss a range of provocative visions for the future of energy and explore topics such as: the role of the consumer as an active participant in distributed energy; the connected home and the connected car; the latest trends in energy investment; new business models for the future of the utility, and the emerging EU policy context and impact of the Energy Union”.

Electric surge image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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