Why Are We There?
William Polen is a senior director of the United States Energy Association. He has twenty years of experience directing cooperative programs with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Trade and Development Agency, and Departments of Energy and State supporting market transformation, energy trade and investment and technology transfer in Europe and the Eurasia region.
Elliot Roseman is a director at the U.S. Energy Association, where he oversees the development of the Electricity Market Operator working group for southeast Europe. Prior to joining USEA, he worked for decades as a strategy, regulatory and market consultant in the power industry.
Today's energy markets in Europe and the Eurasia region do not adequately stimulate competition or the investment in production, transmission and distribution necessary for secure, reliable, low-cost energy. Further, they fail to provide transportation services that will improve resilience and accelerate cross-border trade.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States Energy Association, USEA, in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, has worked in this region - including Albania, Armenia, Bosnia-Herze-govina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine - to catalyze positive energy sector reform through the Energy Technology and Governance Program.
This is the first in a series of articles that will describe the Program, ETAG, its work in the region, and its tangible benefits to the United States.
The Program supports the following objectives in the region. It strengthens energy security by supporting deep and liquid, cross-border wholesale electricity and natural gas trade. It promotes competition and encourages diversity of energy resources, while ensuring network reliability. And it encourages market and regulatory reforms to incentivize private sector investment and the introduction of new technologies.