Building on the successful ISGAN Knowledge Exchange in 2019, a follow-up project is now underway to capture recent developments and support countries in their development of regulatory sandboxes and related experimental instruments, which are key to enable up-scaling and deployment of smart grid and wider energy system innovation.
The focus of this project, involving 16 countries on four continents, is to share experiences and ideas between countries on how to maximise different aspects of learning from sandbox programmes. The process combines international knowledge exchange workshops with stakeholder dialogue at national level to customise the learning to specific contexts and preconditions in the participating countries. Focus questions include how sandbox programmes can be integrated into longer term energy transition strategies, the legal preconditions and exemption laws to enable sandbox programmes, how to coordinate between different stakeholders in programme implementation, and how to design evaluation processes for policy learning.
The second international workshop of the ISGAN Regulatory Sandbox 2.0 project was held on 15 March 2021, involving 30 experts from ministries, regulatory bodies, energy agencies and the research community in a highly interactive dialogue on country-specific as well as shared challenges and experiences.
Apart from concrete learning for the participating countries, the project will deliver concrete policy messages to the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting later this spring. The project results will also be disseminated widely through a public workshop arranged by the ISGAN Academy and a new ISGAN Casebook on Regulatory Sandboxes.