The Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP)'s Annual Summit was held on June 1st and 2nd 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Summit was hosted by Eletrobras - the 2014-2015 outgoing Chair Company of the organization - and brought together the heads and representatives of the largest electricity companies around the world.

Mr. Terry Tamminen, R20 Chief Strategic Advisor, opened the GSEP Rio Summit with a speech on the green economy, our progress so far and the remaining challenges for the energy sector. For Mr. Tamminen, organizations like GSEP and R20 play an important role in solving the many challenges of powering a sustainable future by actually doing projects on the ground and developing paths to sustainable energy, not just talking about it.

The second day of the Summit centered on "Challenges for Positive Engagement of Stakeholders in the Operation and Expansion of Electric Utilities' Assets", the theme of Eletrobras's GSEP chairmanship year. In a series of exchanges between the GSEP Chairmen and distinguished guests from the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil, ANEEL (Brazilian National Regulatory Agency), the Electric Power Research Institute, the International Electrotechnical Commission, Global Electricity Initiative, among others, different insights and experiences were presented on how to increase engagement of different stakeholder groups in order to drive long-term sustainable business success.

In another highlight of the Summit, the Chairmen welcomed EuroSibEnergo from Russia as a new member of the GSEP. EuroSibEnergo is the world's largest private hydro-generation company and the largest private power company in Russia with an extensive corporate social responsibility portfolio. "We are all very enthusiastic to have EuroSibEnergo join our Partnership. This clearly shows EuroSibEnergo's true commitment towards the promotion of sustainable energy development and its strong will to work together with the biggest electricity companies of the world towards this goal", commented Mr. José da Costa, CEO of Eletrobras and 2014-2015 GSEP Chairman.

The Summit closed with the transfer of the GSEP Chairmanship to State Grid Corporation of China for the 2015-2016 year whose theme of the year will be "Roadmap for Energy Future - Moving from Today's Power Systems to a Global Energy Interconnection". The GSEP also issued its 2014-2015 Annual Report, summarizing a year of building capacities to foster stakeholder engagement through capacity-building activities. To download the report, please click here.


GSEP Chairmen, representatives and Executive Director, Martine Provost,
at the Rio Summit with Mr. Terry Tamminen, R20 Chief Strategic Advisor


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