Siemens expects “even stronger impacts” from the coronavirus pandemic in the coming weeks as it posted an 18% drop in profits during the second quarter. The German technology conglomerate withdrew its guidance for fiscal-2020 but confirmed the timeline for the spin-off of its energy business.
April 2020 was the first month ever that renewables generated more electricity than thermal coal in the United States every single day. According to government data, coal’s market share in April declined to 15.3% amid a steep drop in power demand due to the pandemic.
U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has instated Order 841, removing market barriers for energy storage to allow it compete on an equal footing with fossil fuel generators. Analysts say the order could push up storage deployment to 50 GW as capital costs fall up to 15% per year.
Nationwide lockdowns in India have highlighted the financial risk of coal power plants – a technology increasingly uncompetitive compared with gas or renewables. In the first 33 days of the 2020/21 fiscal year, coal-fired generation was down just shy of 30 Terawatt-hours (TWh).
Asia’s Japan/Korea LNG (JKM) price marker is “potentially undervalued”, Energy Aspects says, pointing at a strong demand upswing in South Korea. Should KOGAS switch decisively from coal to gas generation, this would pull JKM prices above levels at the Dutch TTF starting from the fourth quarter.
Wärtsilä is working on a new combustion process to allow its gas engine burn solely hydrogen fuel. The Finish technology group has already tested its engines with blends of up to 60% hydrogen and 40% natural gas, having proven that the engines can run on synthetic carbon-neutral methane.
South Korea’s Hyosung Group and the German chemical group Linde have agreed to build the world’s largest liquid hydrogen plant at cost of Won 300 billion ($244 million) in Ulsan by 2022. The project is part of South Korean government’s plans to use more hydrogen for transport and power gen.
MAN Energy Solutions, in consortium with Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC), will supply two 18V48/60TS engines to expand the capacity of DPP2 Bemland power plant in Suriname from 84 MW to 126 MW. Project finance for this second upgrade comes from OLIBIS.
U.S. developer PowerPHASE has launched a Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Plant, designed to enable grid-scale energy storage of renewable power. CEO Bob Kraft said the company is working with a couple utilities in the United States to install the first reference unit.
Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the state’s major investor-owned utilities, has been awarded contracts for 770 MW battery energy storage capacity. The seven new units will help mitigate intermittency issues when 3 GW of ageing gas peaking plants are due to retire before year-end.
Rising volumes of US LNG exports have boosted liquidity at traded gas markets, leading to greater price correlation of regional hubs and more integrated markets. Still, prices at the U.S. Henry Hub, Asia’s Japan/Korea LNG (JKM), and the UK National Balancing Point (NBP) show much less correlation than crude oil benchmarks.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla has applied to the British energy regulator Ofgem to sell electricity in the UK. The purpose of the licence may be to introduce Tesla’s Autobidder energy trading platform in the UK, which is already running at Tesla’s Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia.
News in Brief
New York body rejects William’s plans for gas pipeline expansion
May 21 – New York’s and New Jersey’s state bodies for environmental conservation have rejected Williams’ plans for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project, designed to transport 400 million cubic feet per day of gas from Pennsylvania to New York. The state bodies had already denied wetland permits in 2019, but Williams pipeline subsidiary Transco filed another application with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), arguing firm services under the project were agreed with UK’s National Grid for customers in New York City districts of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.
UK inflation at 4-year low amid falling energy costs
May 20 – The rate of inflation in the UK has fallen to a four-year low as the pandemic pushed down global oil and fuel prices which translate into lower wholesale power prices. The consumer price index fell to an annual rate of 0.8% in April, down from 1.5% in March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Deficit grows in German green energy fund
May 19 – German regional grid operator TransnetBW has warned of a growing shortfall in the country’s fund for green energy sources, financed under the so-called renewable energy (EEG) levy. TransnetBW, the TSO in southwest Germany, said “due to the EEG cost allocations defined for 2020, we anticipate there will be a negative year end bank account balance in the high three-digit million euro range for 2020.”
Spanish gas companies ‘resilient’
May 18 – Spain’s regulated gas companies “should prove to be resilient” to external shocks arising from coronavirus containment measures, Standard & Poor’s analysis finds, calculating with an average drop in EBITBA at less than 3% in 2020. A new remuneration framework for 2021-2026, recently enacted by the Spanish government, provides enhanced visibility rated grid operators amid the pandemic.
German electricity prices second highest in EU
May 15 – Taxes and the renewable energy surcharge have pushed up Germany’s household electricity prices to the second highest level in Europe, topped only by prices in Denmark. While Danish households paid 29.2 Euros per 100 kWh on average in the second half of 2019, prices in Germany averaged 28.7 Euros, according to the EU statistics office Eurostat.
Calpine’s Q1 earnings fall
May 14 – Calpine, America’s largest generator of electricity from gas and geothermal, has reported a net income of $128 million for the first quarter of 2020, down from $175 million in the prior year period. Lower commodity margins and unfavourable change in income taxes were partially offset by earnings from hedge positions for the three month ending March 31.
Siemens to supply hybrid plant in the Philippines
May 13 – Berkley Energy has contracted Siemens Energy to build a hybrid power project on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines. The project links 16 MW wind power with battery storage, stabilizing energy supply in a remote location with a weak link to the grid and reducing its dependence on diesel.
U.S. energy emissions fall
May 12 – Energy-related carbon emissions in the United States have fallen more than energy consumption, down 2.8% over the course of last year to 5,130 million metric tons (MMmt). Power sector emissions were down 145 MMmt, due to a switch from coal to gas and renewables. In April 2020, emissions experienced another unprecedented fall in due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
MAN expands Omincare concept
March 11 – MAN Energy Solutions’ service brand has extended its ‘PrimeServ Omnicare’ concept from turbomachinery to the marine and power segments. The one-stop service solution is now also applicable for maintenance of third-party machinery, including engines, turbochargers and related auxiliaries.
MIVOLT launches cooling fluid
May 7 – MIVOLT, part of the British company M&I Materials, has launched two specialist fluids to improve cooling efficiency at data centres. The electricity demand of data centres is forecast to rise to 20% of global supply to accommodate lifestyle changes like 5G internet network, autonomous vehicles and bitcoin mining.
Germany adds 1,300 km to power grid
May 6 – Germany has made progress in expanding its strained power grid. According to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), over 1,300 kilometres of new power transmission lines have been built and another 830km approved. A further 3,600km are planned to be built by 2030 to alleviate grid bottlenecks and allow transporting rising volumes of offshore wind southbound.
Oman nationalizes first IPP
May 5 – Manah Power, the first privately-run Independent Power Project (IPP) in Oman, has been transferred to state ownership, following the expiry of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between United Power Company and state-owned OPWP. Manah IPP was developed under Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model, which stipulates an eventual nationalization of the assets – a feature absent in subsequent IPPs.
U.S inventories at record highs
May 4 – Inventories for crude oil and natural gas have reached a new record high in the United States, as fuel demand declines both for transport and the electric power sector. From March 13 – when a national emergency was declared due to the Covid-19 pandemic – to April 24, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 74 million barrels, or 16%, according to government figures. The acute scarcity of crude storage on April 20 led to a sell-off of future contracts at negative prices.
Wärtsilä to service Argentinean power plant
May 1 – Wärtsilä has signed a 10-year maintenance and service agreement with one of Argentina’s upstream companies. Under the deal, Wärtsilä provides a guaranteed performance for a 57.6 MW onsite power plant in the southern part of Argentina, with excess power sold to the national grid.
Zink-Air batteries for NY
April 30 – Zinc8 Energy Solutions has entered a cooperation with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to install a zinc-air battery energy storage, backed by $2.55 million in state funding over a three year period. The Zinc8 ESS units can deliver power in the range 20-50 MW, with capacity of 8 hours of storage duration. The project will help New York State achieve its goal of installing 3 GW of energy storage by 2030.
UK again ‘coal-free’
April 29 – The UK continues to break its coal-free record as thermal coal-fired power plants currently remain off the system, according to National Grid data. Faltering demand due to the pandemic and high renewable energy supply radically altered the energy mix in many developed countries, with power in-feed from solar PV reaching 10 GW in Britain at the start of this week. “Coal is due off the system by 2025 and renewables have shown they are cost competitive with a viable route to market,” Delta-EE director Andy Bradley commented.
China’s fuel demand to rebound in Q2
April 28 – China’s demand for refined fuel is forecast to rebound in the second quarter, nearly reaching year-ago levels, as lockdowns to contain the coronavirus get lifted. Analysts at SIA Energy in Beijing expect second quarter demand for the three main transportation fuels to increase by 1.1 million barrels per day compared with the first quarter of 2020.
