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April 2020 • Volume 13 • No 2 • Published monthly • ISSN 1757-7365
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES is published by Man in Black Media • www.mibmedia.com • Editor-in-Chief: Junior Isles • For all enquiries email: enquiries@teitimes.com
Digital
transformations
Burning issues
It’s time to think big, start small and
scale fast.
Page 13
Biomass has its challenges but some
argue it still has a role to play.
Page 14
News In Brief
EU pushes hydrogen
economy
The EU is to push hydrogen as
part of its latest attempt to help the
transition to a climate-neutral EU
by 2050.
Page 2
Strong renewables growth
predicted for Brazil
Signals for strong growth of both
solar and wind technologies in
Brazil are continuing, according to
analysis from Fitch Solutions.
Page 4
India removes tariff caps on
renewable projects
India’s Ministry for New and
Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said
that the upper ceiling tariffs or tariff
caps will no longer be prescribed in
future bids for renewable projects.
Page 6
Dutch trio warms up for H
2
venture
The developers behind a new large-
scale green hydroge gas project in
the north of the Netherlands say they
are open to adding new partners to
their venture.
Page 7
AfDB backs Nigerian rural
programme
Nigeria’s Rural Electrication
Agency (REA) has launched a
project designed to help the country
meet its target of universal energy
access by 2030.
Page 8
Uniper energy strategy
targets carbon neutrality
Germany’s third-largest publicly
listed energy company has said
that it intends to make its power
generation portfolio in Europe
climate-neutral by 2035.
Page 9
Technology Focus: A little
heat can go a long way
A new technology that is able to
produce electricity from very low-
grade heat looks set to help meet
the power demands and reduce the
carbon footprint of data centres.
Applications in the oil and gas, fuel
cell, and geothermal sectors are also
just around the corner.
Page 15
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The European Union insists its Green Deal will go ahead as fears grow that it will be derailed
by the coronavirus pandemic. Junior Isles
Coal plant closures drive steep fall in
carbon emissions
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY
TIMES
Final Word
We must stick together in
these dark times, says
Junior Isles.
Page 16
The European Union’s Green Deal
plan to fully decarbonise its economy
by 2050 will go ahead despite the
coronavirus pandemic, the European
Commission has said.
The reassurance comes amid calls
for the deal to be scrapped and fears
that governments will shy away from
long-term efforts to curb emissions
as they shift their attention to com-
bating the disease. The Commission
has admitted it is having to re-order
its priorities but insisted the show
must go on even as Frans Timmer-
mans, the Commission’s Executive
Vice President in charge of the Green
Deal, began a self-imposed quaran-
tine, which was due to last until
March 20th.
“At this point in time, we do not
have any comment to make on any
knock-on effect that this could have
on legislative work in general,” said
Eric Mamer, chief spokesperson of
the European Commission, during a
press brieng. He also suggested that
a reshufing of priorities was under-
way at the EU executive because of
constraints posed by teleworking.
“For legislative activity to work, we
need to have the institutions able to
operate,” Mamer admitted, saying
Commission services and other EU
institutions would have to prioritise
their work in order to accommodate
the current needs.
Vivian Loonela, the EU Commis-
sion’s spokesperson for the European
Green Deal added: “The long-term
work on the Green Deal continues
in parallel” to the corona virus re-
ghting “and continues to be one of
the priorities as well. We have prepa-
rations ongoing for the next initiatives
and this work is continuing. That work
is under way through our colleagues
who are teleworking.”
Mamer also stressed that it does not
mean Europe should “forget about the
Green Deal” to focus on the coronavi-
rus, as suggested by Czech Prime
Minister Andrej Babiš. Nor will the
Commission put its carbon trading
scheme on hold, as Poland requested
through its Deputy Minister for State
Assets, Janusz Kowalski.
Austria’s Federal Minister for Cli-
mate Action, Leonore Gewessler, re-
jected the call by Babiš to scrap the
deal. She said: “I do not agree with
Andrej Babiš.” Although she insisted
that the coronavirus crisis must be
overcome “now,” Gewessler said
politicians had a responsibility to of-
fer a long-term perspective to their
citizens.
“Climate change is an existential
threat which can be tackled with an
economic programme, the Green New
Deal,” Gewessler told EURACTIV.
Pascal Cann, a French lawmaker
who chairs the European Parlia-
ment’s environment and public
health committee, said: “Failure to
respond to the climate crisis will not
help solve the coronavirus so those
who use this pretext against the green
deal are irresponsible.”
Continued on Page 2
Carbon emissions from the global
power sector fell at the fastest rate in
at least 30 years as electricity compa-
nies turned their backs on coal, ac-
cording to according to climate think
tank Ember.
The rm’s analysis nds coal red
power generation declined 3 per cent
in 2019, leading to a 2 per cent fall in
the sector’s CO
2
emissions.
The report’s authors said, however,
that a shift away from fossil fuels was
not yet the new normal and warned
that governments must rapidly speed
up the transition to sustainable energy
sources to avoid the worst impacts of
global warming.
Dave Jones, lead author of the re-
port, said: “The global decline of coal
and power sector emissions is good
news, but governments have to dra-
matically accelerate the electricity
transition so that global coal genera-
tion collapses throughout the 2020s.”
The report noted that although nu-
clear plant restarts in Japan and South
Korea slowed demand for coal, China
bucked the trend by increasing its coal
usage by 2 per cent.
Last year’s fall in coal red power
was the largest since 1990, when the
International Agency began reporting
gures, and was driven in part by a
switch to renewables in Europe and
more competitive gas pricing in the
US. Coal generated 24 per cent less
electricity in Europe and 16 per cent
in the US.
Numerous countries in Europe
have set deadlines for phasing out
coal red generation.
The UK, which relied on coal for 40
per cent of its generation as little as six
years ago, has set a target to phase out
coal completely by 2025. Last year
coal accounted for just 2 per cent of
generation and the country took an-
other big step to achieving its goal
with the recent announcement that
British electricity generation compa-
ny Drax will stop using coal at its sta-
tion near Selby next year, four years
ahead of the government’s ofcial
target.
Under the company’s plans, com-
mercial power generation from coal
will end in March next year but its two
coal units will remain available for
emergency energy needs until Sep-
tember 2022.
Coal represented about 3 per cent of
Drax’s power generation in 2019,
down from 30 per cent in 2016.
Drax, which has the capacity to pro-
vide electricity for around 13 million
homes, has converted four of its six
former coal red units at its Selby site
in North Yorkshire in the past decade
to use biomass wood pellets.
“Ending the use of coal at Drax is a
landmark in our continued efforts to
transform the business and become a
world-leading carbon negative com-
pany by 2030,” said Chief Executive
Will Gardiner.
“Drax’s journey away from coal
began some years ago and I’m proud
to say we’re going to nish the job
well ahead of the government dead-
line,” he added.
Coronavirus
will not stop
EU Green Deal
The Commission’s Eric Mamer says work is being prioritised
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
3
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THE ENERGY INDUSTRY
TIMES
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
5
Asia News
Syed Ali
The Indonesian government says it
aims to complete a study into replacing
several aging fossil fuel red plants
with renewable energy plants this year.
The study, which began in January,
not only includes mapping potential
renewable sources but also future
growth in targeted regions, the Energy
and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Di-
rector General for electrication, Rida
Mulyana, said. It is being conducted
by state-owned electricity company
PLN as the operator of the aging plants.
“We are still gathering data right
now,” said Rida, who is also a PLN
commissioner. There are a lot of plants
and they are quite spread out. We can't
study them randomly, but this has to
be done one by one. This needs time.”
Indonesia has 2246 diesel red
power plants (PLTD) that are over 15
years old, 16.2 per cent of which are
in Aceh, ministry data shows. These
plants have a combined installed ca-
pacity of 1778 MW.
Indonesia also has 23 coal red pow-
er plants (PLTU) that are over 20 years
old and 46 combined cycle power
plants (PLGU) of similar ages. The
former have a combined capacity of
5655 MW and the latter 5912 MW.
Most of these aging plants are located
on Java Island.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy
aims to make renewables contribute 23
per cent to its power production by
2025, yet regulatory obstacles are
slowing progress. Existing regulations
stipulate that Indonesia should have
reached a 17.5 per cent renewable
power mix by 2019, yet the country
achieved only 12.36 per cent that year.
Energy Minister Arin Tasrif said the
government’s aim was to simultane-
ously supply energy at competitive
prices and chase Indonesia’s renew-
able energy commitments.
Arin has repeatedly said that the
country’s regions should use locally
available energy sources, particularly
renewables, instead of solely relying
on fossil fuels – a principle enshrined
in the country’s 2007 Energy Law.
PLN, however, is under pressure
from the government to sell electricity
as cheaply as possible for the benet
of low-income households and major
industries.
The government imposes price limits
for PLN electricity through Energy
Ministerial Regulation No. 28/2016 on
electricity tariffs. This has forced PLN
to invest in fossil fuelled power plants,
whose fuel is kept at below-market
prices through other regulations. The
government’s Domestic Market Obli-
gation (DMO) policy requires coal
miners to sell a quarter of their produc-
tion domestically at $70 per ton. The
government is also allocating Rp18.7
trillion ($1.18 billion) for fuel subsidies
this year.
PLN aims to have the lowest electric-
ity rates in ASEAN. Currently, it sells
household electricity at an average of
Rp 1467/kWh, the second lowest in
Southeast Asia after Malaysia.
n Construction on the 174 MW Asa-
han III hydropower plant in North Su-
matra has resumed after authorities
settled administration problems that
have extended the facility’s develop-
ment period by nine years. The facility
was initially expected to be completed
by 2014, but the date was pushed to
2023 due to permit-related setbacks
and a corruption case. Completion of
the plant would increase the share of
renewable energy in northern Suma-
tra’s power grid from 33.7 per cent to
35.6 per cent by 2023, well above the
nationwide target of 23 per cent by
2025.
Vietnam Electricity (EVN) needs in-
vestment capital of VND93.2 trillion
($3.97 billion) in 2020 for power proj-
ects, according to the group.
EVN says it will use Ofcial Devel-
opment Assistance (ODA) and foreign
loans to meet the investment demand
for power sources and grid projects.
The company says it will focus on
completing key projects such as the
expansion of the Duyên Hải 3 thermal
power plant and Đa Nhim hydroelec-
tric plant, and the 500 kV Vũng Áng-
Dốc Sỏi-Pleiku transmission line. The
key projects include power transmis-
sion projects for small solar power and
hydropower plants and projects to
transport electricity from China and
Laos.
According to a recent report from
Fitch Solutions, Vietnam’s power ex-
pansion will continue to be largely
driven by coal, despite increasing pres-
sure on the fuel.
Coal will remain the most practical
option in the short-term to stimulate
affordable electricity generation
growth at the pace and scale needed by
the country, it said, particularly as the
country deals with looming threats of
power shortages.
The National Steering Committee for
Power Development has recommend-
ed scaling the share of coal down for
the upcoming PDP VIII, eliminating
nearly 15 GW of planned coal projects
and for coal to account only 37 per cent
of Vietnam’s electricity by 2025.
“We note that the government ini-
tially had a coal capacity target of 106
GW by 2025, and for an additional
55 GW of coal capacity from 2017 to
2030. There is yet to be a decision
made on capacity targets, and Fitch
believes that the government is likely
to retain an ongoing commitment to
coal at present,” it stated.
In late February, Vietnam News
Agency reported that the capacity of
coal red power plants in Vietnam will
be reduced to 8760 MW in 2025 and
6340 MW in 2030 due to the slow
implementation of several projects and
objections in some localities to coal
red power plant development.
In 2020, coal red generation will
make up about 33.2 per cent of the
total, gas red generation 14.8 per
cent, hydropower 30.1 per cent, and
small hydropower and renewable en-
ergy 20.3 per cent. By 2025, these
gures will be 37.1 per cent, 13.7 per
cent, 18.2 per cent, and 25.5 per cent,
respectively.
n The Ministry of Industry and Trade
(MoIT) has called for more solar pow-
er producers in Vietnam to enjoy xed
feed-in-tariffs (FIT) instead of a bid-
ding mechanism. The ministry had
been considering a bidding plan for all
solar projects without power purchase
agreements (PPAs) signed before 23
November last year in the country.
However, it now thinks that could have
a negative impact. It has therefore sent
a report to the government, suggesting
that solar power projects approved
before 23 November 2019, that begin
operating before 1 January 2021,
should enjoy xed feed-in-tariffs (FIT)
of 7.09 ¢/kWh for plants on land and
7.69 ¢/kWh for oating plants.
Indonesia looks to convert old
power plants into renewables
EVN needs nearly
$4 billion for
power projects
Indonesia is studying how to meet its green energy goals while maintaining low electricity prices.
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
9
Companies News
Uniper, Germany’s third-largest pub-
licly listed energy company has said
that it intends to make its power gen-
eration portfolio in Europe climate-
neutral by 2035.
Speaking at its annual results press
conference for the 2019 nancial year
in Düsseldorf, Germany, Uniper CEO
Andreas Schierenbeck said the com-
pany will gradually reduce its own port-
folio’s carbon emissions, while offering
its customers products and services that
are increasingly climate-friendly.
Between now and 2022, Uniper will
invest more than €1.2 billion in projects
that accelerate the transition to a lower-
carbon world. The announcement is
part of a fundamental strategic reori-
entation, which the company is calling
“Empower Energy Evolution”.
“At the operational level we have
seen very positive developments in
Germany with the adoption of the coal
phase-out law. Now we know the situ-
ation and what it means for us... it gives
us new scope for action. In parallel we
have our own ambitious plan to end
coal red generation.”
By 2025, Uniper plans to shut down
2.9 GW of coal red generation in Ger-
many but said the commissioning of
its Datteln 4 modern coal red plant is
continuing. Schierenbeck noted that
the plant achieved a load of 1100 MW
on March 9th and is expected to begin
commercial operation this summer.
Uniper says the plant will run until
2035 or 2038.
Under Uniper’s coal phase-out strat-
egy, coal plant closures in Germany
alone will reduce its carbon emissions
by around 40 per cent. This goes a
signicant way to its goal of reducing
its carbon emissions from 22 million
tonnes today to net zero in 2035.
Uniper says the exit from coal will
make the role of gas in its portfolio
even more important.
The company, which operates in all
stages of the gas value chain, is well
positioned to a play an important role
in supply security and gas conversion.
It said the coal and nuclear phase-out
in Germany is expected to lead to
wider margins and better utilisation of
its gas red power plants.
Uniper says that the continuing
growth in renewables would pose
challenges for the grid, which will cre-
ate new opportunities to offer prod-
ucts and services to networks. This is
already happening in the UK through
auctions for emergency reserve
generating capacity, it said, and would
increasingly be seen in Germany.
“Uniper was awarded four six-year
contracts for the Killingholme and
Grain power stations in the UK to pro-
vide stability services.,” said Schieren-
beck. “Germany needs a similar mech-
anism. We’re using Irsching, one of our
facilities, to build a [gas red] generat-
ing unit that from 2022 will serve as a
safety buffer for the system operator...
and, as at our own facilities, we want
to help industrial customers convert to
gas red systems.”
Schierenbeck added: “A decisive as-
pect of decarbonisation will be replac-
ing conventional gas with green gas or
hydrogen. Uniper is now a power-to-
gas pioneer, a technology that makes
green hydrogen possible. We antici-
pated the trend toward gas, initiated
projects, and we are now ready for
scale-up and sector coupling.
“Today gas generation and mid-
stream generates nearly 60 per cent of
our earnings; we want to achieve more
growth in these businesses.”
Uniper says it surpassed its 2019 -
nancial targets, posting adjusted EBIT
of €863 million in the 2019 nancial
year, in line with the previous year’s
level of €865 million. Schierenbeck
said this was “at the upper range” of
its expectation.
Adjusted EBIT beneted from the
fact that higher power prices and output
enabled the company’s hydro and nu-
clear power stations to earn more. An-
other positive contribution came from
the business in Russia and from the
reinstatement of the UK capacity mar-
ket, it said.
EDF has added around 190 000 cus-
tomer accounts to its UK retail busi-
ness after sealing a deal with Sweden-
based energy company Vattenfall.
EDF has acquired the residential
customer base of iSupplyEnergy, Vat-
tenfall’s UK electricity and gas sales
arm. The deal follows Vattenfall’s
decision to exit the UK’s energy retail
business in order to focus on develop-
ing its core UK renewable power gen-
eration, heating, B2B sales and distri-
butions businesses.
Vattenfall entered the UK retail sec-
tor in 2017 with the purchase of iSup-
plyEnergy, which is based in southern
England with 250 employees. Earlier
this year it was ned £1.5 million by
regulator Ofgem for overcharging cus-
tomers by breaching a price cap im-
posed on default energy tariffs.
EDF has just over ve million resi-
dential gas and electricity customers in
the UK. In a statement an EDF spokes-
person said: “As the largest producer
of low carbon energy in the country,
EDF is committed to growing its retail
business in the UK so it can support as
many customers as possible on the
journey to net zero emissions.”
n Vattenfall has agreed the sale of its
entire UK electric vehicle business to
Statkraft. Statkraft will take on Vat-
tenfall’s existing electric vehicle
charging network staff in the UK and
will manage, operate and maintain its
charging stations. It will continue to
power the charging network using 100
per centrenewable energy from its
own portfolio.
UK energy giant Centrica is aiming to
boost the adoption of electric vehicles
in the UK with a three-year partnership
with Volkswagen Group (VW).
Under the partnership, the two com-
panies will provide home-charging
hardware solutions for new EV owners
through Elli, the central provider of
charging hardware and related ser-
vices for VW.
The partnership will support the roll-
out of VW’s 80 electric and plug-in
hybrid models as well as the UK’s net-
zero climate targets, Centrica said.
“Getting carbon out of transport by
accelerating EV adoption is critical
for net zero. We’re proud to play our
part by helping enable the EV transi-
tion for Volkswagen, one of the
world’s most forward thinking and
ambitious automotive companies,”
said Sarwjit Sambhi, CEO of Cen-
trica Consumer.
“Centrica is committed to a pathway
for the energy transition in line with
the Paris agreement through focusing
on three things – helping our customers
reduce their emissions, reducing the
emissions of the energy system as a
whole, and reducing our own. We
made material progress on all of these
during 2019 and are committed to a
plan for delivering net zero by 2050.”
The partnership will see Elli work
exclusively with Centrica’s British
Gas brand to deliver a package of
home charging installations, after-
sales services and preparatory electri-
cal upgrades across the UK. This will
help customers to transition to EV
smoothly and cost effectively, ini-
tially across the Volkswagen, SEAT,
Škoda and Volkswagen Commercial
Vehicles with plans for Audi to join
later this year.
Volkswagen Group has committed to
introducing 80 electric and plug-in
hybrid models by 2025. It said that the
deal with Centrica would help to give
UK consumers “more condence” as
they switch to EV transport.
n Jaguar Land Rover has entered into
a partnership with Tata Power to pro-
vide end-to-end EV charging solutions
in India. Tata Power will provide a
range of AC and DC chargers, which
will range from 7 kW to 50 kW capac-
ity, across Jaguar Land Rover’s retail
network of 27 outlets in 24 cities and
at customers residence and ofce.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI)
has marked its entry to the global clean
energy storage market with a $46 mil-
lion investment in Highview Power.
The two companies have announced
a partnership to develop long-dura-
tion cryogenic energy storage tech-
nology and develop projects globally,
based on Highview’s CryoBattery
technology.
Under the partnership deal, SHI sub-
sidiary Sumitomo SHI FW (SFW)
will become SHI’s technology centre
and hub for the CRYOBattery busi-
ness, thereby expanding the technol-
ogy’s geographical footprint in Eu-
rope, Asia, and the Americas. The
move will help Highview to acceler-
ate its global growth initiatives, it said.
Javier Cavada, President and CEO
of Highview Power, explained: “By
partnering with a large technology
company with the reputation of
SHI, we will be able to benet from
their vast know-how, resources, and
operating experience in diversied
markets.”
Highview’s technology uses liquid
air as the storage medium and can
deliver anywhere from 20 MW/100
MWh to more than 200 MW/2 GWh
of energy. Last year it announced
plans to build its rst project in the
USA – a 50 MW/800 MWh project in
northern Vermont.
Highview currently operates two
pilot plants in the UK and has an-
nounced plans to build a 50 MW/250
MWh plant in northern England.
Sumitomo,
Highview partner
on cryo storage
EDF
boosts
UK retail
arm
Centrica accelerates EVs
Uniper energy strategy targets
carbon neutrality by 2035
Germany-based energy giant Uniper is following a coal exit plan that will see it invest in
new growth aimed at helping it become carbon-neutral in Europe by 2035.
Junior Isles reports.
Schierenbeck says the exit
from coal will make the role of
gas in its portfolio even more
important
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
13
Industry Perspective
D
igital transformation is creat-
ing signicant opportunity
for the energy industry to ap-
ply digital solutions to improve oper-
ation, performance and reliability of
assets. However, one of the most
challenging aspects of the digital
transformation is trying to under-
stand the terminology.
Terms such as articial intelligence
(AI), machine learning (ML) and
others are often used interchange-
ably but in many cases, incorrectly.
No doubt computers and machines
are now able to perform many tasks
that previously could only be done
by humans. The thought of having
IBM’s Watson make important deci-
sions on plant operation and mainte-
nance to improve performance and
reliability without human interven-
tion sounds great. But in reality, at
this point, most of successful ma-
chine learning applications today are
actually “taught” or “supervised” by
humans or subject matter experts
(SME) and use some form of super-
vised ML.
In our experience, of the US com-
panies that have started an AI/ML
journey, over 70 per cent have either
stopped, drifted away from their ini-
tial digital vision, or have been unable
to justify further investment based on
lower than expected benets.
AI is an area of computer science
that enables machines to perform
tasks which were done by humans
more intelligently, whereas ML is a
subset of AI and means machines
can learn independently from the
past/current and solve future prob-
lems that didn’t exist before or pre-
dict much earlier and accurately as
compared to humans by leveraging
computing power.
Within machine learning, there are
two distinct types – supervised and
unsupervised. Both are ways in
which machines – or algorithms –
can be applied to raw data sets and
learn relationships between the vari-
ous data. Supervised ML is the most
common and practical type, as it le-
verages the SME’s knowledge to
both “learn” better and faster.
The North American energy mar-
ket has experienced a massive shift
with the emergence and competitive-
ness of renewables, energy efcien-
cy, low gas prices, imbalance chal-
lenges in demand and supply due to
renewables, etc. This has resulted in
a steady increase in utilities, inde-
pendent power producers (IPPs),
grid operators and distributors
looking for ways to apply AI/ML to
remain competitive.
The applications have been varied
across markets and sectors but
mainly focus on distinct three cate-
gories: rstly, demand management,
i.e. energy management systems, en-
ergy efciency, and demand re-
sponse management; second, renew-
able energy management, i.e.
renewable forecast, equipment
maintenance, wind and solar ef-
ciency, energy storage; and third, as-
set performance management, i.e.
asset monitoring and diagnostics
(M&D); equipment operation and
maintenance (O&M), and genera-
tion management.
Demand management: All utili-
ties, (regulated and deregulated)
have one prime objective: to supply
power and/or gas to serve the ener-
gy needs of all its customers. De-
mand management systems play a
crucial role in this. The changing
nature of power generation resourc-
es and unpredictable weather pat-
terns make this task more compli-
cated. Utilities have increasingly
used AI/ML to gain a better under-
standing of consumer demand and
manage constraints in the grid. A
signicant investment has been
made in grid modernisation includ-
ing smart grids, advanced metering
infrastructure, synchro-phasers, mi-
crogrids and demand response (Ta-
ble 1), but a lot of further changes
are needed to be make demand
management more efcient.
The rapid increase in variable re-
newable energy and natural gas gen-
eration is altering grid management
needs and the reliance on baseload
generation. Nearly 95 per cent of net
new electricity capacity added to the
US grid in 2018/2019 was renew-
able, according to data from the US
Energy Information Administration.
According to Brattle Group, ap-
proximately $1.5-2.0 trillion will be
spent by 2030 to modernise the grid.
Interestingly, all generation, trans-
mission and distribution systems are
designed for peak demand and with
the added challenges of energy ef-
ciency and other factors the systems
are mostly under-utilised. The use of
AI/ML in demand response manage-
ment is enabling operators to plan
better and optimise the grid infra-
structure to better serve customers.
The low cost of sensors, edge solu-
tions and faster data transfer have
enabled better processing and feed-
back to operators.
Renewable energy management:
Solar and wind are the two largest
sustainable and biggest enablers for
renewable energy. However, they are
also the most unpredictable sources
and the lack of large-scale storage
presents the biggest challenge to de-
carbonise energy generation. Not
surprisingly, AI/ML have found a
wide use in this eld with AI being
used to improve the reliability of so-
lar and wind power by looking at
large amounts of ever changing me-
teorological data and using the data
to make better predictions regarding
power production.
With renewable generation, a mul-
titude of microgrids must integrate
with larger grid networks to maintain
a stable and efcient grid network.
AI applications can help balance and
manage any microgrid power surges
by continuously analysing the vari-
ous microgrid connections.
Energy storage is a key element of
the growth of renewables and is still
evolving with respect to cost com-
petitiveness and scalability. AI/ML is
being used to provide intelligent en-
ergy storage by gathering and pro-
viding data to determine the opti-
mum locations for energy storage by
analysing storage needs and grid po-
sition in real-time. In the USA, ap-
proximately 1000 MWh of energy
storage capacity is now functional
and likely to double in the next few
years. According to McKinsey, one
of the key drivers for growth in this
area will be protability of energy
storage projects, which are highly
dependent on AI/ML to predict the
suitable size, location, technology
and optimise cost.
Asset performance management:
Asset performance management so-
lutions are ideally suited for main-
taining the reliability and perfor-
mance of the energy asset stream
(generation, transmission, distribu-
tion and storage). Owners/operators
are constantly looking for innovative
and cost-effective ways to improve
the exibility, performance, avail-
ability, and reliability of their assets
while also reducing their operating
and maintenance costs to stay (or be-
come) protable. Many are now im-
plementing active, real-time M&D
solutions to move from a reactive
mindset to a more predictive asset
management strategy. AI/ML solu-
tions are the foundation of these ef-
forts across North America. The ear-
ly adopters like Duke Energy,
Southern Co and TVA are already
using these techniques to improve
performance and reliability.
Today, M&D applications have
moved beyond simple anomaly de-
tection. With most utility operators
facing signicant “baby boomer” re-
tirements and smaller O&M teams,
the question is often: What to do
once the anomaly is detected by the
M&D centre? New, advanced M&D
applications use more accurate ma-
chine learning algorithms for early
problem detection (and less false
alarms), in combination with AI-
based methods for diagnosing the
most likely root cause of a problem
and determining the remaining time
to act when an anomaly case arises.
Most of the subject matter exper-
tise we need is readily available
from plant staff, troubleshooting
guides and fault trees. The digital
transformation task at hand is to
bring this expertise online using
tools that are available now to do so.
These advanced solutions can ingest
and leverage the available domain
(SME) knowledge for efcient appli-
cation across the entire eet.
Digital transformation is no longer
just part of the standard vision or
strategy statement. It is now a criti-
cal part of the business in the utility
industry and important for overall
success. Many early adopters are al-
ready creating value from digital
transformation efforts, whereas oth-
ers are still on the edge looking at
initiation plans.
However, there are multiple chal-
lenges for any major digital transfor-
mation initiative including: lack of
executive support and buy-in; lack
of well-dened plans; signicant dis-
ruption or change in business plans;
internal cultural obstacles; lack of
communication or coordination
across multi-functional teams; “pilot
purgatory” or no early demonstrated
success to build upon.
The bottom-line for any digital
transformation effort is to plan bet-
ter, get a few early wins and make a
case for further investment to en-
hance capabilities. In our experience,
the best way forward is to develop a
vision on how digitalisation can im-
prove your business (think big), start
with a well-dened application in as
a pilot (start small) to prove the ben-
ets and then apply these solutions
quickly across the organisation to
reap the benets (scale fast).
Deepak Khajouria is Vice President,
XMPLR Energy; Scott Affelt is
Business Development Executive,
Expert Microsystems Inc.
There is much
confusion around the
digital transformation.
Some argue the
best way forward
is to think big, start
small and scale fast.
Deepak Khajouria
and Scott Affelt
Digital transformation: opportunity
or confusion?
Comparison of grid of now/past with grid of 2030: there has been
signicant investment in grid modernisation but further changes are
needed.
(Source: Southern Company)
Now/Past 2030
One-way ow Bi-directional ow
Scheduled generation Uncontrolled variable generation
Central dispatch High-performance infrastructure
Time-based maintenance Condition-based maintenance
Mostly mechanical Inverter-based growth
Reactive expansion Proactive expansion
Integration of AI/ML (M&D) for asset management & operations
management
for different kinds of waste fuelled
power plants increase in China. “We
have delivered one municipal waste
fuelled CFB power plant to China
and have several other projects on-
going,” Janhunen adds.
The picture in Europe is more
mixed. While a number of countries
are using biomass-based plants for
power and heat, others such as Den-
mark are using it as part of a strategy
to handle waste, become carbon neu-
tral and create a circular economy.
Valmet has recently commissioned a
500 MW (thermal) biomass based
combined heat and power plant for
the city of Copenhagen and another
140 MW (thermal) boiler for Ørsted.
Germany sees biomass to energy as a
local solution similar to waste-to-en-
ergy.
The UK, however, has been far
more progressive on promoting and
utilising biomass. The Drax 4000
MW power station in North York-
shire, which was once the UK’s larg-
est coal red station, has been steadily
converted to biomass.
Further, Drax’s latest Teesside
project being undertaken by SFW
will be the largest CFB boiler in the
world ring only biomass when it
starts up in 2021/2022. Japan will use
this as a model to build its own super-
critical 300 MW biomass projects.
Meanwhile, the Nordics have long
been leaders in the use of biomass
throughout the value chain – from
pulp and paper to power generation
and heating. The governments are
well aligned with industry on the use
of biomass and the business is well
established and will continue for the
foreseeable future.
Both Finland and Sweden, with
their large biomass resources, are the
world leaders in the eld. Janhunen,
says biomass is a very important
energy source for district heating in
Finland and Sweden, and also for
industrial captive power heat and
power plants.
“In fact our roots are in the pulp and
paper industry, providing technolo-
gies that allows customers to turn
waste bark, sludge and wood-based
residues from their production pro-
cesses into energy instead of landll-
ing,” he said. “This is well aligned
with moves to the circular economy
and resource efciency programmes.”
Both SFW and Valmet, however,
believe that developers looking to
make the large long term investment
required for such projects, need to
know that their investment will be
secure, and this calls for supportive
legislation and market mechanisms.
Most countries have moved away
from Renewable Energy Certicates
to some form of feed-in tariffs to
support projects. Europe, however,
now seems to be discouraging sup-
port for biomass due to concerns
over the carbon neutrality of the en-
ergy resource.
S
ome argue that the ethical and
environmental concerns sur-
rounding the use of biomass as
a fuel for power generation make it a
poor solution in countries’ efforts to
get to net zero by 2050. Yet despite the
cons, it still can still play an important
role in national energy strategies to
tackle carbon emissions and combat
climate change.
“Biomass still has a good story to-
day; it’s not perfect, 100 per cent,
carbon recycling but you can get
pretty close,” notes Bob Giglio, Se-
nior Vice President at Sumitomo SHI
FW (SFW). “Even though the bio-
mass grown absorbs the carbon, you
have carbon leakage when you re-
admit it through the combustion pro-
cess. Although the amount you re-
admit is equal to the amount you
absorb, the extra energy you put into
the process, through transport and
processing the biomass into a burn-
able form, is usually provided by
non-renewable sources. But depend-
ing on how you process and harvest it,
you can get to around 95 per cent
[carbon recycling].”
With the ability to co-re or burn
biomass in modied coal burning
stations, Giglio believes burning bio-
mass is a better carbon reduction op-
tion than retrotting carbon capture
and storage to coal plants. “CCS
could get you to 90 per cent but you
will have to spend a lot of money. And
what do you do with the captured
carbon? With biomass it’s a natural
process.” He added: “To make bio-
mass plant economic, you need CO
2
to be in the €20-30/t range. For CCS,
you’re up in the €70-100/t range.”
Commenting on the CCS situation,
however, Kai Janhunen, Vice Presi-
dent of Energy at Finnish-based Val-
met notes that the discussion about
BioCCS or BioCCU (biomass based
carbon capture and utilisation) has
come on to the agenda in the EU and
the Nordics. “If CCS or CCU is in-
stalled in a biomass-based power
plant it would enable negative emis-
sion, which is increasingly on the
agenda in the European Union.”
Unlike renewable alternatives such
as solar and wind, however, biomass
requires land and water, and it re-
quires processing. But the upside is
that it is a dispatchable generating
source and can be stored. “Unlike
solar and wind, you can turn a bio-
mass plant on and off because the
energy is stored in the biomass,
whether on site or in the crop itself,”
said Giglio. “Today, biomass is the
only dependable, renewable, sus-
tainable source of energy we have.”
Countries with limited options on
near- or zero-carbon options in their
energy portfolios are recognising this.
A good example is Japan. Having
stopped most of its nuclear generation
following the Fukushima disaster, the
country now has to depend on expen-
sive imported natural gas and oil to
replace base load capacity. Giglio
said: “Coal is the obvious low cost
baseload replacement for nuclear, and
the government is trying to push it
despite public opposition, but it’s the
worst emitting in terms of carbon. So
Japan is in a tough spot.”
In this situation, biomass is a good
option, as it provides dependable
baseload power with the value of
carbon recycling – a capability that
Japan has recognised.
“To ensure energy sufciency, the
Japanese government drew up a feed-
in-tariff (FIT) scheme for renewable
electricity including biomass. This
system allows a higher FIT price for
biomass-based electricity production.
It has been the biggest driving force
behind the bioenergy boom and the
building of biomass power plants in
Japan,” Janhunen said.
Consequently, Japan is one of the
most aggressive and progressive in
pursuing large-scale, high-efciency
biomass projects. These larger more
efcient plants are important in re-
ducing the consumption of biomass
and thereby in improving the overall
carbon cycle and reducing land use.
SFW has been working with Japan
to develop 300+ MW single unit
plants that operate under supercriti-
cal conditions. Giglio commented:
“No one has done this anywhere else
in the world. Japan has the structure,
the will and the nancial capability
to do it.” He says, the company is
working with the government on
writing the policy that will then be
turned into a bidding programme and
then tenders for these larger scale
more efcient projects.
Another key market in Asia is
South Korea. It is similar to Japan in
terms of energy prole and strategy
– it is a large importer of fuels and
needs to keep electricity costs low. It
is therefore, according to Giglio, also
a target market for large, supercriti-
cal biomass plants.
He noted, however: “Unlike Japan,
Korea has greater public opposition
to biomass. The authorities have re-
alised that mixing demolition woods
and industrial waste material, etc.,
into the biomass streams, can reduce
fuel costs. The public, however, view
this as a type of waste-burning plant,
which still has a stigma as being bad
for the environment. Although a lot of
the gas emitted from those plants is
considered carbon-neutral, there are a
lot of toxins, chlorines, metals, plas-
tics, etc., that get into these fuel
streams that make them more afford-
able but require clean burning tech-
nologies, like uidised bed combus-
tion to ensure they don’t get into our
atmosphere.”
He added: “China is also looking at
biomass but is going more towards
the traditional trash-based fuel mar-
ket… as a way to connect their landll
problems with their climate issues.”
Valmet has also seen the interest
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
Energy Outlook
14
Biomass has its
challenges but
arguably still has a
role to play in many
markets.
Junior Isles reports.
Biomass: burning issues
During a UN press conference in
December last year, Frans Timmer-
mans, Executive Vice President of the
EU, said: “The issue of biofuels needs
to be looked at very carefully. We
have to make sure that what we do
with biofuels is sustainable and does
not do more harm than that it does
good.”
Giglio noted: “You now have to go
through these ‘tollgates’ to get your
biomass certied… and there is a big
process to weed-out those projects
that are not that carbon neutral. A big
new no, no in Europe’s latest sustain-
ability plan is that you can’t source
the biomass outside Europe. That puts
a stop-sign in front of a lot of new
projects.”
According to SFW, this is mostly
affecting the growth of projects in
Europe that generate electricity only,
and to drive new power-only projects
into the market, carbon prices in the
EU emissions trading scheme will
need to be in the €50/t range. Never-
theless, the underlying market for
smaller niche, industrial CHP or dis-
trict heating type plants where there is
a local supply of biomass, is expected
to remain robust.
If investors are to have condence
in the long-term return on projects,
technologies that bring greater fuel
exibility and higher efciency will
be important.
Janhunen noted: “Circulating ui-
dised bed technology gives users the
opportunity to burn various different
fuels – biomass, coal or a mixture of
both, as well as new types of biomass
and waste. We are building more
technologies to access a wider range
of biomasses, especially in the area of
agro-based biomasses.”
He added: “The conversion rate
needs to be good so that we can gener-
ate the most electricity when com-
busting the biomass.” Valmet says
steam temperatures in its boilers can
now reach 560°C – even with partly
agro-based biomass. This enables
plant efciencies of more than 40 per
cent in condensing plant.
Giglio also believes efciency is
key to lowering costs, which also
comes with scale. “As we build big-
ger plants, on average they become
more efcient because there are big-
ger pieces that can contain the process
better and you have lower heat losses.
And we can push the steam condi-
tions higher to supercritical steam
conditions. So efciency and scale
both go together.”
At the same time boiler companies
are trying to advance technology to
burn low quality fuels efciently at
these higher temperatures with mini-
mum corrosion inside the boiler.
Ultimately, biomass burning and
co-ring with coal may fall globally
but it looks likely to remain an impor-
tant energy source for many countries,
especially in Asia, as they move to-
wards greening their economies.
Giglio says biomass still has a
good story today
Janhunen notes BioCCS or
BioCCU would enable negative
carbon emissions
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
15
Technology Focus
A new technology that is able to produce electricity from very low-grade heat looks set to help meet the power
demands and reduce the carbon footprint of data centres. Applications in the oil and gas, fuel cell, and geothermal
sectors are also just around the corner. Junior Isles reports.
T
he carbon emissions produced
by data centres as a result of
the massive amount of power
they consume is increasingly being
highlighted as a growing concern in
the war on climate change. At the
same time, utilities are struggling to
keep up with this demand, and data
centres often nd themselves with-
out adequate power for expansion.
A solution, however, could be just
around the corner as a novel technol-
ogy developed by PwrCor, Inc.
moves closer to deployment. In Oc-
tober of last year PwrCor announced
the discovery of an enhanced ther-
modynamic cycle, validated by an
internationally renowned research
institute, which makes the economic
conversion of ultra-low-grade waste
heat to power a reality.
At the start of February the US
technology company, which special-
ises in renewable energy, marked a
key step in its technology’s roll-out
with the announcement that it has
engaged a New York investment
bank as part of a multi-pronged plan
to commercialise its proprietary
heat-to-power technology.
Commenting on the move, Thom-
as Telegades, PwrCor’s CEO, said:
“The bank will be attracting strate-
gic partners that will help us accel-
erate our commercialisation and, in
the process, invest in our company.
One of the strategies is to work with
those industry leaders in the market
verticals that we are focussing on:
those who see the benet of our
technology to their business strate-
gy and are looking to accelerate the
use of PwrCor’s technology in their
industry.”
“The amount of capital being in-
vested – either by the strategic verti-
cals that will come in, or by an ener-
gy fund or private equity – could
range anywhere from $10-20 mil-
lion,” noted Telegades. “It’s not a
great deal of capital but it’s very fo-
cussed and purposed capital.”
Strategic partners will essentially
be those that have large amounts of
“wasted low-grade heat that can be
converted to power to their benet”.
Key markets are therefore data cen-
tres, geothermal installations, the
oil & gas sector, applications that
use fuel cells and even solar-ther-
mal facilities.
“The ability to capture that waste
heat is what our technology does,”
said Telegades. “If you look at a re-
ciprocating combustion engine as an
example, a huge amount of heat is
wasted in the exhaust and within the
radiator (cooling) loop: those en-
gines are running at about less than
50 per cent efciency. We can har-
ness this low-grade waste heat and
convert it back to energy which ulti-
mately improves the return on in-
vestment of a given process.”
PwrCor’s proprietary, international
patent-pending technology uses
waste heat, typically presented in the
form of hot water, to power what
Telegades describes as a “piston-
driven thermal-hydraulic engine”.
According to Telegades, the engine
can function economically, depend-
ing on electricity prices and on heat
at temperatures between 55-120°C
(130-250°F).
Telegades claimed: “We are about
the only solution able to efciently
convert heat to power at those levels.
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) en-
gines typically function above 250°F
and some of them have been known
to function as low as 200°F but none
have functioned with any level of
notable efciency or economics be-
low 200°F.
“When we compare the thermody-
namic efciency of our technology
to ORC, we can deliver 3-5 times
more power at equivalent heat lev-
els. It’s a breakthrough in the ultra-
low temperature heat-to-power con-
version market place.”
The technology has been devel-
oped over the last seven years or so
in collaboration with a world re-
nowned independent research insti-
tute based in the US that offered
third party R&D expertise as well as
applications engineering.
Full-scale testing of PwrCor’s rst
generation engine was carried out at
the research institute and subse-
quently deployed at a geothermal hot
spring in California. Power output
has since steadily increased in subse-
quent generations of the engine,
while slightly reducing the footprint.
The current third generation engine
has also been fully tested and has
been shown to produce between 30
and 50 per cent of additional power
versus that rst generation engine.
“With the development of the 3rd
generation of the technology, we’re
now ready to accelerate the com-
mercialisation. The investment
banking rm will help us do that,”
said Telegades.
The rst two markets that PwrCor
will focus on are data centres and oil
& gas elds.
According to industry studies, data
centres now consume over 3 per cent
of total global electricity production,
and consumption is expected to dou-
ble every four years. Data centre
power consumption in the US alone
is expected to increase to 140 TWh
within a year’s time.
The servers within the data centres
account for about half of the power
consumed and additional electricity
is needed to cool the data centre
electronics. And with the number
and size of data centres growing and
the market trending to the use of
denser server racks and faster chips
to support High Performance Com-
puting, Articial Intelligence (AI)
and the Internet of Things, etc., both
power and cooling requirements are
increasing.
PwrCor says it is “uniquely posi-
tioned” to convert the heat absorbed
by state-of-the-art liquid cooling
technologies into clean green power,
thereby reducing carbon footprint
and the demand placed on utilities to
provide electricity.
Telegades, noted: “It’s not unusual
for a data centre to consume 40-
50 MW of power, with as much as
98-99 per cent of the power con-
sumed by the servers and its elec-
tronics being converted to heat. As
servers get denser and hotter, the ef-
fective way to cool those electronics
is through liquid cooling that pro-
vides us with a stream of uid that
becomes the medium from which
we can extract heat and convert it
to useful electricity.”
The end result is an improvement
in the data centre’s Power Usage Ef-
fectiveness (PUE) – a key data cen-
tre efciency ratio – and signicant
cost savings that positively impacts a
data centre’s bottom line.
The power that can be recovered is
signicant. “For a data centre with
electronics that consume 50 MW – if
we assume the data centre is entirely
liquid-cooled and the liquid-cooled
stream is presented to us at between
160-175°F – we can produce ap-
proximately 5 MW of power. So,
we’re running at about a 9 -10 per
cent efciency at those temperature
levels,” explained Telegades.
He added: “Not only can we give
them electricity, we are entirely
green: there is no combustion in our
engine and we use no harmful chem-
icals. We only produce clean power
from heat.”
In terms of oil and gas, PwrCor is
focussing on production elds. Its
research, which has been validated
by Southern Methodist University,
shows there is a big market opportu-
nity to produce electricity from heat
in the geothermal co-produced uids
extracted from the ground during oil
and gas production. According to
their data, in the US alone there are
more than 600 000 operating oil and
gas wells with geothermal potential.
“When you extract hydrocarbons
from the ground, typically what
comes up with the oil or the gas is
a lot of hot water known as co-pro-
duced uids. Sometimes there’s as
much as nine parts co-produced
uids to one part hydrocarbon. The
ability to provide electricity at the
wellhead or well-site is a market
opportunity for PwrCor,” noted
Telegades.
He says the company is currently
working with an oil and gas opera-
tors to demonstrate the viability of
PwrCor’s technology at the well-
head. The gas operators have wells
yielding co-produced uids of be-
tween 190-215°F.
Telegades said: “One of the biggest
costs of operation in an oil eld is
the cost of electricity. This will elim-
inate the need for them to import
power from the utility or to run gen-
erators to create electricity to extract
oil from the ground and/or run
pumps.”
Although not an immediate target
market, PwrCor has also worked
with a major fuel cell company on a
study of how the engines can be
used to provide additional power
from fuel cell installations. Fuel cells
also produce heat during the process
of converting chemical energy to
electricity. PwrCor believes that it
can use the wasted low-grade heat
from the fuel cell to produce 12-14
per cent of additional power.
Telegades summed up: “There’s
no other technology that operates in
the temperature range that we do.
So, our technology can bring a tre-
mendous benet to not only our cli-
ents in terms of low-cost power, but
to the environment in terms of re-
duced heat and reduced hydrocar-
bon emissions.”
A little heat can go a long way
Telegades: “There’s no other
technology that operates in
the temperature range that we
do”
Waste heat is typically
presented in the form of hot
water to power a piston-driven
thermal-hydraulic engine
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2020
16
Final Word
T
hese are desperate times. Al-
most everyone has been af-
fected by the Covid-19 pan-
demic and for many of us the way we
now live and work has changed be-
yond recognition.
While some industry sectors will be
hit harder than others, all will be im-
pacted in some way. The energy sector
is no exception.
As lockdowns become widespread,
electricity demand has fallen and will
no doubt continue to fall for the com-
ing weeks, if not months. On March
25th, one quarter of the world’s popu-
lation was under a coronavirus lock-
down. And there is a direct correlation
between the demand slump and the
virus. According to an FT analysis of
data from the European Network of
Transmission System Operators for
Electricity (Entso-e) – which repre-
sents 43 electricity transmission sys-
tem operators in 36 countries across
Europe – energy consumption is down
in most European economies
S&P Global Ratings said it expects
power demand in Europe to decline by
5-7 per cent this year on 2019 and
power prices to be down 20 per cent
in 2021 from its previous assumptions.
In Europe, the fall in electricity
consumption was rst seen in northern
Italy, the epicentre of the country’s
outbreak. Consumption in the region
was 15 per cent lower on March 18
compared to the same day of the week
in mid-February. In China, where the
outbreak started, there has been some
recovery from the peak of the crisis
but power plant coal consumption is
still down by 30 per cent compared
with the start of the year.
Wood Mackenzie said existing gen-
erators were having to “navigate
crashing demand and margins” and
noted that “signicant downside risks
remain” if containment efforts
prompted a global recession. “The
primary risk to regional power markets
is a prolonged recession. Gas genera-
tors must navigate uneven impacts of a
simultaneous oil price collapse,” said
the global research and consulting rm.
“European lockdowns have become
more widespread and established –
shifts in power demand, market bal-
ance and price will become more
marked. Gas remains more economic
than coal despite the downward shift
in carbon prices but both fuels are
seeing lower margins due to depressed
demand,” it said.
Wood Mackenzie also observed that
the impact on technology supply
chains and installations is “coming
into view”. The spread of shutdowns
into Spain, Italy, Malaysia and parts
of the US will impact solar inverters
and module production, said the rm.
The wind sector is certainly being
hit. A report from the Global Wind
Energy Council (GWEC) and Chinese
Wind Energy Association (CWEA)
said the coronavirus outbreak will
impact the supply chain and installa-
tion operations in China’s wind energy
sector, as well as the worldwide wind
industry.
It concluded, however, that while the
virus will impact supply chain and
installation operations, the slowdown
will not be as signicant as reported
by some industry observers (for ex-
ample predicting a halving of China’s
installations in 2020).
Wood Mackenzie forecasts that the
crisis will cause global wind additions
in 2020 to decline by 4.9 GW compared
to its previous projections. Due to the
pandemic and other market changes
since Wood Mackenzie’s Q4 2019
update, total forecast wind additions for
2020 is now expected to be 73 GW.
According to Wood Mackenzie, the
potential impact on global installa-
tions remains most signicant in
China and the US, where wind-fo-
cused policy deadlines were expected
to deliver record volumes.
“The state of the pandemic is evolv-
ing on an hourly basis, resulting in a
highly reactionary environment. In-
dustry stakeholders are continually
adapting business operations to bal-
ance worker safety with the needs of
their clients, all while complying with
dynamic government containment
measures,” said Dan Shreve, Wood
Mackenzie Head of Global Wind
Energy Research.
The rapidly transitioning energy
landscape has certainly shown that the
sector can be creative and adapt when
it needs to.
In India, the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently
issued an ofcial memorandum,
which states that the time extension in
scheduled commissioning of renew-
able projects due to the disruption of
supply chains will be treated as a ‘force
majeure’ event. It is a shame that many
insurance companies and some air-
lines have not taken the same stance
to affected travellers.
The government of India, in its letter
dated February 19, 2020, claried that
the disruption of the supply chains due
to the spread of Coronavirus in China
or any other country should be consid-
ered as a case of natural calamity and
the Force Majeure Clause (FMC) may
be invoked.
Working together during this testing
time is important for everyone’s sur-
vival and it is heartening to see that
companies and governments are col-
laborating to keep businesses aoat
and people in jobs. Ultimately busi-
nesses depend on people.
Trade unions, EDF and the UK
government are all working to ensure
jobs are safeguarded as much as pos-
sible to keep construction of the Hin-
kley C nuclear project moving. After
the UK government announced its
lockdown, the trade union GMB ac-
knowledged that it was almost impos-
sible to maintain full operations but
would work to nd solutions.
“We are aware that EDF and the
companies involved are exploring
options to keep workers, including the
new government Furlough scheme,
and we will work with them to nd
solutions to the short term issues
thrown up by the current crisis.
“GMB are in several discussions a
day with EDF to ensure that workers
get the best deal in the short term, and
that we secure their long term future
at the site. We are strongly committed
to the safety of our members and the
future of the HPC Project.”
Fortunately, with electricity being an
essential part of modern life, power
providers will survive and ultimately,
those supplying equipment to the
sector will remain in business.
In light of the corona crisis, E.On SE
CEO Johannes Teyssen stressed:
“Energy utilities have a special sig-
nicance for critical infrastructure in
this crisis and thus a special responsi-
bility. We’re Europe’s biggest operator
of energy networks. Their reliability
and continuous availability is of para-
mount importance for healthcare,
public order, and people everywhere.”
Addressing the possible implica-
tions of the corona crisis to the com-
pany, he said: “Overall, the energy
industry doubtless won’t be as hard hit
as other industries. But will still expect
the crisis to leave its mark on our
bottom line. Industrial and commer-
cial customers are consuming notice-
ably less energy. This will have a
temporary impact on our network and
sales businesses.”
Certainly these are desperate times
but given the essential service that
generators provide, they will be able
to withstand Covid-19 better than
most. S&P Global Ratings expects the
credit quality of European utilities to
stay relatively resilient. “We currently
expect only a limited number of rating
downgrades in the sector given the
essential service they provide, the
regulated or long-term contracted
nature of a portion of their activities,
and their relatively better access to
capital markets,” said credit analyst
Pierre Georges
That is fortunate for all of us. If the
power industry fails, these would not
be just desperate times but dark times
indeed.
Desperate times need not
be dark
Junior Isles
Cartoon: jemsoar.com
