You are here: Home » Subject » Capacity Markets
Capacity Markets
More News and Commentary
Gerard Wynn
Progress this week on British energy policy
LONDON—The European Court of Justice’s decision yesterday to suspend Britain’s capacity market creates an opportunity to focus on more cost-effective and forward-looking solutions for safeguarding the country’s energy-supply security. We’ve argued previously that Britain’s capacity market. which has served as a model for a similar scheme in Poland, provides subsidies that may no longer be […]
Press Release
Leaders and Laggards Emerge; US$185 Billion in Lost Shareholder Value Seen Among Utilities Failing to Keep Pace; Solar and Wind Generation ‘Can Now Consistently Outbid Fossil-Fuel-Based Generation’
Oct. 4, 2017 (IEEFA) — The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published a report today that describes how the rise of renewable energy is disrupting electricity markets worldwide. The report, “Global Electricity Utilities in Transition: Leaders and Laggards: 11 Case Studies,” documents a pace of change in Asia, Europe, the Americas and […]
Gerard Wynn
Spanish Environmental Groups Say Their Country is Violating European Commission Guidelines; Spain Should Retire Excess Capacity Before Paying Plants to Stay Online
A recent call by two environmental organizations for a formal state aid probe into Spain’s payments subsidizing gas- and coal-fired power plants appears to be well warranted, given multiple breaches of European state aid guidelines revealed by IEEFA in our December 2016 report, “Spain’s Capacity Market: Energy Security or Subsidy?” The Instituto Internacional de Derecho […]
Gerard Wynn
Latest Government Projections Undermine the Case for a Flagship Capacity Market That Subsidizes Conventional Generation
The U.K. government’s latest energy projections, out last week, show a grid dominated by renewables and electricity imports by 2025, exceeding the conventional generation presently supported by the country’s ratepayer-subsidized capacity market. This news comes on the heels of a report we published earlier this month on how interconnection with neighboring countries and renewable energy […]
Gerard Wynn
Grid Proves Resilient in Face of 60% Drop in Coal Use in 2016; New Renewables and Interconnection Are the Future; Capacity Market Has Failed to Incentivize Modernization; More Targeted Auctions Would Help
The U.K.’s capacity market is the weak link in the country’s ongoing transition toward a resilient, low-carbon grid. That is one of the core findings in a report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap —we published today. The report finds that the U.K. grid is coping […]
IEEFA
Energy Transition Already Well Under Way; Policy Reforms Required to Address Failure of Current System to Incentivize Grid Modernization; Brexit Offers an Opportunity for Change
March 9, 2017 (IEEFA) — The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published a report today that describes a path by which renewable energy can reliably and economically replace coal-fired generation in the U.K. The report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap”—examines how recent […]
IEEFA
Zeke Turner for the Wall Street Journal: A battle is raging in Central Europe over the balance of power—the electrical kind. Poland and the Czech Republic see Germany as an aggressor, overproducing electricity and dumping it across the border. Germany sees itself as a green-energy pioneer under unfair attacks from less innovative neighbors. As part […]
IEEFA
Andrew Ward for the Financial Times: Coal-fired power generators were among the winners of contracts worth £378m to generate electricity next winter, highlighting the tension between government efforts to reduce carbon emissions and the need for energy security. Critics have highlighted the apparent contradiction between government plans to phase out all coal-fired power from the […]
Gerard Wynn
Capacity Subsidies May Be Redundant
The U.K. this week holds its biggest auction ever for electricity generating capacity under a multi-billion-pound scheme whose stated aim is to increase investment in new, flexible generation. The intent is to help balance the growth in variable wind and solar power while ensuring there are enough power plants to cover demand. Under the so-called […]
IEEFA
Megan Darby for ClimateChangeNews.com: Spain is propping up old coal and gas-fired power plants with payments for staying open, regardless of how much they generate. The support, worth €1 billion a year, is a needless burden on consumers, according to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). It is likely […]
IEEFA Report: A U.K. Electricity Transformation Under Way, But in Need of Better Direction
Grid Proves Resilient in Face of 60% Drop in Coal Use in 2016; New Renewables and Interconnection Are the Future; Capacity Market Has Failed to Incentivize Modernization; More Targeted Auctions Would HelpThe U.K.’s capacity market is the weak link in the country’s ongoing transition toward a resilient, low-carbon grid. That is one of the core findings in a report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap —we published today. The report finds that the U.K. grid is coping […]