EU throws in the towel over national energy support schemes

Eur Activ ^ | 23 November 2016 | Frédéric Simon

[Lorianne]

EU member states have pressed ahead with a variety of schemes to remunerate energy generators for keeping power plants on stand-by, despite warnings from Brussels. It now seems certain that such “capacity mechanisms” will remain a fact of life, at least for the foreseeable future.

When it opened its initial consultation in July 2015 on a new design for Europe’s electricity market, the EU executive called for “an effective regulatory and governance framework which reduces the need for interventions such as capacity mechanisms”.

The European Commission had in mind national schemes that effectively pay the owners of power plants, many of which might otherwise be unprofitable, to continue operating them in the interest of security of supply, in order to “keep the lights on”.

Officials from the Commission’s energy directorate have been warning for years that such interventions could lead to the fragmentation of the planned single European market for electricity, even before it is completed.

However, many member states have pressed ahead with a variety of schemes to remunerate generators for keeping power plants on stand-by. It now seems certain that capacity mechanisms will be a fact of life, at least for the foreseeable future.

This is confirmed by a leaked draft of a forthcoming proposal for a new electricity market design, part of a “Winter Package” of legislative proposals due to be published on 30 November.

Rather than block such market interventions entirely, the Commission appears to have chosen to push for strict limits on capacity schemes, and ensure that they are open across national borders. The energy directorate also looks set to call for regional, rather than a purely national, assessments of generation adequacy.

Environmentalists have criticised capacity mechanisms for effectively allowing member states to subsidise the construction of fossil fuel plants remaining on stand-by, in case the wind is not blowing or the sun not shining.

But the electricity industry argues there is a value to that.

“I think the flexibility to make sure electricity is there at the moment you need it has a value. And that is irrespective of whether the energy comes from coal, wind, solar, nuclear or hydro,” said Hans Ten Berge, the secretary-general of Eurelectric, the EU association representing the electricity industry.

“So having a capacity price is not necessarily a subsidy for fossil fuel plants, this is nonsense. It can also be done by reducing your demand or with renewables, foreign capacity, storage – whatever you have,” Ten Berge told EurActiv in an interview.

SNIP

[NonValueAdded]

Why don't they position an array of lights onto their solar panels to boost generation - whadda you mean it violates the First Law of Thermodynamics?

OK, windmill array pointed at the EU Parliament. Put them on standby and when power dips, tell them to talk.

[DavidLSpud]

“Winter Package”

European Winter of 1944-45...coldest in “living memory”...

My Dad had a “Winter Package”... a tent, a cot with a trench

next to it with ice and water he could roll into if the

German Luftwaffe came for a visit...which they did...

(Jan. 1, 1945)...oh....

and a M-1 carbine to defend himself...and his Army airbase..

from “450,000 troops and 1,500 tanks and assault guns.”

( ; )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodenplatte

Operation Bodenplatte (Baseplate), launched on 1 January 1945, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries during the Second World War. The goal of Bodenplatte was to gain air superiority during the stagnant stage of the Battle of the Bulge so that the German Army and Waffen-SS forces could resume their advance. The operation was planned for 16 December 1944, but was delayed repeatedly due to bad weather until New Year’s Day, the first day that happened to be suitable.[9]

In 1945 he was on a ship headed to the Pacific...

Thanks to Jehovah God and Atomic Bombs...there is

a Baby Boom Generation including me.

During the 50’s and 60’s he enjoyed drilling oil wells

and buying his children warm coats and shoes...he dropped out of school when he didn’t have shoes to get him to school one winter.

Oh...BTW...My Dad didn’t care what color a man’s skin was...

if he went to work and did his job.

MAGA