Provision of stability in the renewable energy transition

Troubled German utility group energy Baden-Wurttemberg AG (EnBW) renewable energy capacity in the energy market in the country has announced that it intends to four fossil fuelled power plants due to the increasing volumes close.

Renewable priority in the UK order of merit, the company argues, means, operate fossil fired systems often exclusively as 'marginal ability' makes in periods of peak demand or when renewable energy spending low. This leads to a drastic decline in revenues, she adds.

Highlighting the challenges of gas-fired power stations, EnBW also says that current electricity prices given market, no longer their can cover full operating costs older coal and oil fired power plants. Therefore, you decided thermal sizes close with a total capacity of 668 MW at sites in Marbach and Walheim.

While this is clearly evidence that the penetration of renewable energy see a real shift in the profile of Germany's generation mix - of course in the round applause - it also shows one of the biggest challenges for the utility player in the European electricity market today. It is generally accepted that the economic grounding of half of Europe generation to overturn fleet market capitalization, the last in the years in the field in a not inconsiderable extent has contributed.

It is therefore recommended that in absence of a market mechanism that can support the commercial case, heat capacity, and other flexibility measures, which are relatively rarely used, significant amounts of older, less efficient heat capacity be closed inevitably.

At face value, this is a good thing.

But ironically will probably be this older plants by more expensive, but much more efficient, modern gas-fired plants, which have to fight in order given the high wholesale price of natural gas delivered to compete in Western Europe. Kinky erweise see current market conditions apparently older coal-fired stations with higher capacity far more CO2-friendly plants languish.

Moreover, without intervention, it seems likely that this process of decommissioning of more expensive installation is likely to continue. Potentially, stability margins will be so thin that they are not able to cope with a severe change in renewable energies capacity issue - the lights at which point. This would be a bad thing.

A nation attempting to resolve this issue is the United Kingdom, along with strike revealed his renewable energy prices also recently unveiled plans for a capacity market. Paths connecting to the adoption of a new raft of energy policy in the course of this year that says Department of energy and climate change (DECC) perish in 2014 in operation of measures on gas and other flexible power supply to reduce risks to the security of supply of winter 2018.

After the Department forecast will be current existing generators and invest in new equipment or other services such as demand-side response, bid, the total capacity and, if successful, a reliable payment would get in a year, you agree, that the capacity to provide, the.

Under the terms of the proposals, they are obliged to deliver electricity in periods of system stress or face financial penalties. Meanwhile the cost of capacity are picked by suppliers and ultimately consumer agreements.

The logic behind this capacity of single farm payment could a number of fronts are questioned - not least that so far were only a few firm details or consumers only pay effectively fossil plants hanging around not much most of the time to do. Yet, the prerequisite for a stability mechanism is obviously.

The cumulative capacity of variable capacity continues to grow renewable energy generation, it is important that this transition effectively to ensure integrity is managed to the overall system. And the at least opens the door on accelerating the development of alternatives to the option A: idle also providing a market mechanism, a capacity gas turbines spinning reserve.

To hope that past their due date would get such measures, which used the belching oil-fired horrors lurk on a wider scale in the ancient corners of Europe, it is not. But perhaps more importantly is also boost investments to a range of new "clean" technologies in the problems of stability, in theory gives at least such a market. Grounded, how great candidate smart are grids, multi-national trade and transfer and a variety of other effective grid/generation capacity utilization/management tools store, load shedding.

These are the tools which are urgent, completely necessary and integrate national infrastructures reliable large amounts of renewable generation. And ultimately, the tools are to build a 100-percent renewable energy future.

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