Portuguese scholar elected to the ACER Governing Board

• Portuguese candidate Jorge Sousa elected permanent member of ACER with 12 votes — the most voted on by the Member States

• Country achieves a strategic place in ACER with Jorge Sousa elected to the Governing Board.

Maria da Graça Carvalho: "Election strengthens our country’s presence in European energy governance"

The Portuguese scholar Jorge Sousa was elected in the first round to become permanent member of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators -ACER’s Governing Board. The Portuguese candidate had 12 votes and was the most voted on among the names put forward.

The Minister of Environment and Energy Maria da Graça Carvalho noted that she worked "in the last few years as Membre of the European Parliament on the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) and in reinforcing the ACER’s powers". "I am well familiar with the decisive importance this agency plays in the European market’s transparency, integration, and proper running. I am therefore deeply satisfied that a highly qualified Portuguese scholar, who is competent and acknowledged in the energy sector being elected in the first round to the agency’s Governing Board. Choosing Jorge Sousa honours Portugal and strengthens our country’s presence in European energy governance", Maria da Graça Carvalho concluded.

This result, last Friday, reflects the candidate’s high technical and professional quality: Jorge Sousa is a Professor at the Lisbon Engineering Institute (ISEL), specialising in energy economy, energy systems, and energy markets. He is also a senior researcher at INESC-ID, where he has published over 100 papers in scientific reviews, book chapters and international conferences with peer review.

From 2016 to 2020 he was President of ISEL and from 2014 to 2016, Head of the Electrotechnical Engineering Department. From 2008 to 2011he was Assistant Researcher at the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT/CEEPR).

He holds a degree and master’s in Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering from the Portuguese Technical University (IST), and a PhD in Economics from NOVA SBE. Prior to his academic career, Jorge Sousa was an engineering consultant for Electricité de France (EDF).

Portugal now belongs fully to a strategic body in the European energy governance, charged with setting the budget, the political orientation and the supervision of ACER’s mandate’s execution.