Conference paper by Dr Olivia Woolley of the Groningen Centre of Energy Law wins prize

Dr Olivia Woolley of the Groningen Centre of Energy Law won the best paper award at the annual conference of the journal Competition and Regulation in Network Industries held in Brussels on Friday 30 November 2012.  Her paper entitled 'Is a New Legal Framework Required for Governing the Development of a North Sea Electricity Grid?' argues that the North Sea coastal states, who are currently examining the possibility of cooperating on an offshore electricity network project, should establish a framework treaty for governing the development of wind farms and transmission infrastructure in the marine region.  Regional oversight would be needed because of the significant risk that the multiple actions and decisions feeding into what would be an enormously complex developmental process could impact negatively on the pathway that a grid development follows. The paper was selected for the award from amongst the 30 papers accepted for presentation at the conference, and will be published in the journal during 2013.