POWERGEN-EUROPE 2014
with third parties to fund more expensive renewable projects. It has also outlined plans to expand in the retail market, in areas such as energy services and management. Meanwhile, Germany is also seeing the role of its municipal utilities – the ‘Stadtwerke’ – grow in prominence as dependence on larger players declines.
Municipal utilities are majority
state-owned, have more flexibility in that they offer combined heat and power, and in some cases water and steam, and their success is cited by those in Germany pushing for a renationalising of the power industry – a trend known as ‘re- municipalisation’. One other model being explored by municipals in partnership with technology providers is the creation of ‘virtual power plants’, in which a number of small-scale, distributed energy sources are pooled and operated as a single installation.
COMBINING POWER-GEN EUROPE and Renewables Energy World, POWER- GEN Europe 2014 conference and exhibition provides a unique forum to discuss how the conventional power sector is going to operate in markets where at times there is enough wind and solar generation to provide a large proportion, if not all of the supply. It will address strategic and operational questions in relation to the European power business across conventional, nuclear and renewable generation, and will feature the latest developments in storage and integration technologies such as Smart Grid.
Being held in Cologne in Germany on 3-5 June 2014, POWER-GEN
Europe 2014 is the meeting place for power industry professionals from around the globe. It will feature the latest and most viable technological options for achieving the combination of renewable power system solutions with flexible low to zero carbon fossil and nuclear power plants serving populations.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the world’s foremost
technology providers and thought leaders, gain a thorough understanding of the innovative technologies available, and how they can be implemented to realise a balance of clean, affordable electricity that is reliable and secure.
www.powergeneurope.com
Interconnection & Decentralisation Certainly, utilities across Europe will need to reconfigure their business models in light of the role they will play moving forward. Their core expertise lies in constructing and operating plants, but they own assets across the value chain – i.e. power generation, transmission grid, and renewables. It will be vital for the industry to exploit this invaluable expertise and for the utilities to position themselves more as enablers of the system, rather than being centralised producers of power. Decentralisation of the system is already apparent in Germany
and other countries such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe where municipal models are already established, but outside these markets, other solutions will be needed. One potential option is greater cross-border interconnectivity, but this too can be a mixed blessing. Poland’s interconnection with Germany for example, has seen the influx of surplus German wind power place its domestic power plants under extreme pressure. In ideal generating conditions renewables can lead to occasional
power to support baseload and at the same time de-carbonisation. However, development of CCS technologies has not progressed as anticipated and has failed to materialise on any commercial scale.
Keeping the Lights On The recession and economic
slowdown across Europe has meant the political focus has been on financial markets, with energy pushed to the sidelines. But as the economy recovers and the banks
... utilities across Europe will need to
reconfigure their business models in light of the role they will play moving forward
oversupply, but since their delivery is intermittent, conventional power plants must back them up in order to guarantee supply and balance of the grid. Fossil-fired generation and traditional plants are large scale, operating at extremely high pressures and temperatures, and therefore cannot simply be fired up and down on demand. Much like a car, they cannot be taken on frequent short journeys without requiring shorter gaps between servicing. As this type of maintenance can take large plants off-grid, this has serious implications for both cost and security of supply. Up until recently, carbon capture and storage technology was seen as a means of continuing with large amounts of fossil-fired
become stronger, the power industry needs to ensure it doesn’t become the next crisis. At a time when the market is in transition and flux, and with on-going conflict between European energy policies and those of individual Member States, it is all the more important for power industry professionals to come together to devise strategies and solutions to keep the lights on and the industry pumping. •
March 2014 47
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