Dr. Stella Tsani

Energy production is associated with important economic, social and environmental effects. These extend well beyond the financial costs and benefits energy providers are faced with. Production models for 21st century sustainable energy need to develop in an integrated manner that allows for the conceptualization and monetization of the socio-economic and environmental effects. These models have to develop in a way so as to allow integration in well informed and operational decision support systems that can support scientific-evidence based management and policy making. We discuss the methodological approaches for the development of an integrated energy production model and we provide illustrations from decision support tools that can extend so as to include these approaches and allow for well informed decision making. The methodology develops on a Social Cost-Benefit Analysis context and it includes three parts: i) the environmental part, that captures the interactions of energy with the environment, ii) the economic part, that makes provision for the incorporation of economic determinants in the production models and iii) the social part, that introduces the social preferences to the energy production and management process. Alternatives to address data availability issues are also discussed. The methodology progresses the assessment of the costs and benefits of energy beyond pure financial metrics and beyond the quantification of private costs and benefits. The approaches discussed can also support the development of integrated models of energy production that take into consideration both the private and the social costs and benefits related to the externalities and effects not appropriately captured by market mechanisms. The methodology can support energy management and policies targeting sustainable and efficient energy production and financing from an economic, financial, social and environmental prism.

Stella Tsani is the Head of the Department of Energy, Economic Policy and Regional Cooperation at ICRE8: International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy. She is also teaching at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece in subjects of undergraduate Economics and at the International MBA Programme of the same University in subjects of Energy Economics and Management. She holds a PhD in Economics and Business from the University of Reading, UK. She obtained her BSc degree in Economics from the National and Kapodistiran University of Athens, Greece and her MA degree in Business and Management in Emerging Markets from the University of Reading, UK. She has led research in projects funded by the European Commission (FP7, Horizon 2020) and various Directorates (DGENV, DGENER), the World Bank, Revenue Watch Institute USA, etc. She has worked for the Centre for Euro Asian studies in the UK, Europrism in Cyprus, the Public Finance Monitoring Centre in Azerbaijan, the Bank of Greece Climate Change Committee, the Institute of Energy for South East Europe and the Energy Economy Environment Modelling Laboratory (3MLab) at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece. She has also worked for the UK Foreign Office Chevening Fellowship Program in Energy Economics hosted by the University of Reading. She has taught at the University of Reading, UK and Kainar University, Kazakhstan. She has published in leading peer-reviewed journals including: Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Economics Letters, Resources Policy and in edited volues in Energy-related issues. Her research interests focus on resource economics, energy, development, political economy, macroeconomics and socio-economic analysis. Her work is driven by the aim to understand the driving and balancing factors between sustainable energy, economic growth and institutional development.