Blockchain is being used to optimise performance across the board where wholesale digitalisation of trading processes, asset management and demand response is standard. Its adoption by sector operators is clearly visible but is everyone jumping on an untested bandwagon for fear of missing out or will its wide range of possible applications help deliver a leaner industry resulting in reduced costs and a more efficient transition? Gaurav Sharma … [Read more...]
Solar farms getting smaller, cheaper and smarter to overcome grid hurdles
The technical challenges and fast-changing regulatory requirements associated with installing and integrating variable RES capacity are inevitably holding up the transition to clean energy all around the globe. So the announcement of a new smart solar farm in Australia that seems to have overcome these hurdles is really good news. The situation has been neatly captured across a number of recent reports (summarised here) by Giles Parkinson of … [Read more...]
Investment risk: nuclear high, new load-following fossil fuel plants low
In the current policy environment many energy technologies can appear attractive with the right set of assumptions: discounted clean energy technologies (wind, solar and nuclear) where the discount rate is heavily influenced by risk (see graph) and, perhaps surprisingly, new load-following fossil fuel plants (especially natural gas) where continued wind/solar technology forcing actually provides substantial upside potential. CCS researcher Schalk … [Read more...]
EU ties itself into knots with capacity market decisions [Energy Post Weekly]
On 7 February the European Commission approved six new capacity mechanisms in the name of security of supply, insisting that they will not distort the Single Market. Two problems: one, the national decisons come as the EU tries to negotiate Europe-wide power market rules for the next decade. Two, the Commission wants those market rules to exclude coal plants from public support - when it has just authorised Poland to give state aid in the form of … [Read more...]
A pragmatic proposal for supplier compensation
The European Commission has proposed that independent aggregators should not be required anymore to pay compensation to suppliers, as is the case in many EU member states today. According to Philip Baker of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) this proposal should be supported, as it will improve the flexibility of the market and lead to lower prices for consumers. However, it may not be appropriate in the long term: once it has achieved its … [Read more...]
Stimulating demand response by forbidding supplier compensation is neither fair nor efficient
The European Commission has proposed a general framework for independent aggregators in its new draft Electricity Directive to incentivise the development of Demand Response in Europe. According to the Commission, aggregators should not be required to compensate suppliers for the electricity sourced and only exceptionally for the imbalances induced. But a new study carried out by independent experts from consultancy DNV GL for Eurelectric shows … [Read more...]
Brussels should stick with its proposal to remove barriers to demand response schemes: the U.S. is doing the same
Energy suppliers are lobbying against a proposal from the European Commission to remove barriers to demand response schemes, writes Philip Baker, Senior Adviser at the Regulatory Assistance Project, an independent consultancy. According to Baker, the Commission should stick with its proposal. Demand response, he argues, will bring great savings to energy consumers. What is more, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the United States … [Read more...]
Debate over capacity markets heats up in Brussels
Member States, MEPs and other stakeholders in Brussels are getting ready to develop rules for capacity markets in Europe. Some argue that countries should resort to capacity mechanisms only as a last resort. Other such as France insist on strong capacity markets: they are afraid of blackout risks. And there is disagreement over whether to allow coal power stations to play a role as backup source. Sonja van Renssen reports from Brussels. … [Read more...]
Here comes the end of the Energiewende again
Yet again, an expert – this time, a German – has announced that Germany’s energy transition cannot succeed. He has a surprising insight for Energiewende proponents: the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. How could we have missed that, wonders award-winning energy author Craig Morris? Courtesy Energy Transition/Global Energiewende. … [Read more...]
Can UK power market reform replace the capacity market?
The UK has just completed another auction for a large amount of backup power capacity. The country’s capacity market scheme will cost ratepayers many billions of pounds. Independent consultant Gerard Wynn wonders if they are really necessary. … [Read more...]
A rush to subsidies as power plants in Europe face existential threat
So-called capacity markets are driving what appears to be a major new trend in energy policy across Europe: more public subsidies for electric utilities, writes independent consultant Gerard Wynn. In a new report for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), Wynn takes a critical look at capacity payments in Spain, which cost taxpayers €1 billion annually. Meanwhile, the UK just forked out ÂŁ1.2 billion in a capacity … [Read more...]
Lumenaza creates regional electricity markets: “We want to connect up all 1.4 million solar PV producers in Germany with consumers locally”
A new software platform in Germany lets utilities buy and sell “regional electricity” by connecting up small producers with consumers. Start-up Lumenaza, founded three years ago, meets a growing demand for transparency, explains CEO and founder Christian Chudoba in an exclusive interview with Energy Post. Unlike a typical virtual power plant, Lumenaza targets tiny producers such as owners of rooftop solar. Its goal is to connect up all of … [Read more...]
We can’t simply bet on renewable energy to stop global warming
Simply switching to renewables alone will not solve the climate change problem, writes Steffen Böhm, Professor in Organisation and Sustainability at the University of Exeter. We need to start removing carbon from the atmosphere. And we need to tackle the demand side. We cannot simply assume that relentless economic growth is compatible with a green future. Courtesy of The Conversation. … [Read more...]
The five S’s that will define the new energy order
Digitalisation has already had a huge impact on the energy sector, yet we are only at the start of a revolution that will rip apart any business that is too slow to embrace it, writes Gerard Reid, founding partner of Alexa Capital, financial analyst and co-founder of the Energy and Carbon blog. According to Reid it is the combination of five S’s – software, semiconductors, sensors, solar and storage – that will define the new energy order. And it … [Read more...]
Understanding the UK’s capacity market
According to a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) the UK’s government capacity market is not working. With a consultation from the UK Department of Energy and Climage Change (DECC) just finished, Byron Orme, research fellow in energy, transport and climate policy at IPRR explains what the capacity market was supposed to achieve, where it has gone wrong and how it could be fixed. Courtesy of Carbon Brief. … [Read more...]
