Changes

The Committee on Regional development in Heidelberg will focus on the power shift from '''centralised to decentralised''' distribution systems. With EU citizens' growing awareness of '''environmental issues''', new '''technological developments''' and '''[http://energywiki.eyp.org/view/Smart_grid| smart power grids]''' on the horizon, a shift towards a distributed system that includes consumers and turns them into co-producers is a possible future for Europe's energy union. There are many challenges that have to be met before such a transfer can take place: The '''liberalisation''' of the energy market is still not fully implemented and few investments are in place to fund distributed systems. Moreover, the data recorded through power grids raises questions concerning '''data storage''' and '''protection''' and there is currently no strategy on who would regulate a European-wide power grid and how. Finally, many citizens seem to be “energy illiterate”, lacking the necessary knowledge to participate in a new decentralised system. To overcome these obstacles and ensure a bright future for distributed systems in the energy union is what REGI will cover in committee work and resolution.<br />

* more In theory, the efficiency through of energy usage would heavily increase in a smart grids* grid-based system, as energy would be used more efficiently and energy overflow could be avoided. The flexibility through of the power grid would therefore be increased, as information of residential on the energy useof residentials enables its efficiency.<br />  * intelligent and flexible grids instead of linear distribution

* Through the introduction of smart grids, consumers become turn into co-producers* "of energy as they actively participate in the energy grid. As outlined in the section above, this is only possible through an increase in energy literacy" goes up* of citizens connected to the smart power grid. Subsequently, the decentralisation of energy through the means of smart power grids is only possible through the empowerment of the citizensconnected to it.