It will be the historical city of Antwerp in Belgium this time that will host the next UIC Energy Efficiency Days conference (http://www.energy-efficiency-days.org/), jointly organised by UIC, SNCB and Infrabel, from 16 – 19 June 2014.
After four years – the last one was held in 2009 in Tours, France, together with SNCF – the major actors of railways and transport will come back to discuss Energy Efficiency during the two-day event.
Saved energy is the cheapest, cleanest, safest energy we can use; this is the main message of this year’s event with the main motto: “Energy efficiency, the best fuel to move our trains!”
The conference, that will be opened by UIC Chairman Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways RZD, will see the participation of representatives of the most important institutions dealing with energy and transport at European and international level.
To open the high-level panel session of Day 1 of the conference, Energy Vision and Trends for 2030 and Beyond, will be the International Energy Agency, with whom UIC is strengthening its increasingly important cooperation thanks to the joint Handbook published every year on Energy consumption and Co2 emission of word railway sector (http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article3193).
The contribution of the World Resource Institute, the European Environment Agency, the European Commission with DG Move and DG Energy, among others, and more will follow to address a wide range of topics concerning energy use within the rail sector: from prices to government policy, security of supply, future availability of renewable energy, electricity market and much more.
UIC Members will be the leading actors of the afternoon of Day 1 of the conference: a high-level railway panel session will bring together top representatives of railway companies from Europe and from across the globe, to discuss the strategic role that energy efficiency might play in everyday railway business.
The debate will be followed by the session: the Voice of Members, best practice on energy efficiency from all over the world, an important appointment where members will have the possibility to share with a large audience what they are doing or planning to do to improve energy efficiency in their companies.
While Day 1 is devoted to strategic and policy issues, Day 2 of the conference will be dedicated, as is tradition, to technical focus.
This year 12 technical workshops are planned, addressing a wide range of technical topics: from efficiency in electric and diesel traction, to energy saving in long term planning, non-traction energy consumption, load factor, metering and billing, regulation and standardisation updating to good data management and tracking of electricity and Guarantees of Origin!
The rail system is both a major energy consumer and also one of the most energy-efficient transport modes. It can represent the key solution to the challenge of answering the increasing demand for transport with a sustainable solution. Investing in energy-efficiency is essential to meet this challenge.
Two additional important parallel events will complete the comprehensive overview on energy efficiency provided by the conference: the Mid-term conference of MERLIN (http://www.energy-efficiency-days.org/spip.php?article3), the EU co-funded project dealing with the investigation on the viability of an integrated management system to achieve an optimised energy usage in European mainline railway systems and the 9th edition of the annual appointment of ERESS (http://www.eress.eu/), the European partnership between Infrastructure Managers that deals with metering, billing and energy data exchange.
Do not miss these important meetings dates with Energy Efficiency: if not done yet, Register soon! http://www.energy-efficiency-days.org/spip.php?article8
There is a limited number of places.
Please visit the EED website: http://www.energy-efficiency-days.org/
