Power market liberalisation in Japan and South Korea is slowly forthcoming; and the lack of clarity over nuclear energy has prompted major utilities to delay firm LNG procurement decisions which could cause a supply crunch in the Pacific Basin, warns Gavin Thompson, head of Asia Pacific gas & power analysis at Wood MacKenzie.
Value and use of fossil baseload capacity is declining in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in the US as wind capacity doubled from 3.4GW to 6.8GW in the three years until June 2013.
Turkey's government is plagued with a new headache over costs of gas imports after Abu Dhabi-based energy group Taqa decided to pull out of a $12 billion coal-fired power project. Domestic coal is seen as a leeway to reduce Turkey's annual $55bn energy import bill, and policy makers in Ankara have introduced tax breaks in favour of coal generation.
Action seems forthcoming from policy makers in continental Europe to follow Britain's lead and introduce a carbon-floor price as a means to improve the profitability of gas-fired power generation (spark spreads). Germany's Green party calls for a minimum national carbon price of €15/ton, while the CEO of Austria's biggest utility Verbund, Wolfgang Anzengruber suggested only a carbon price at €35/ton would promote a switch from coal to gas.
Tension is rising between policy makers and utilities amid rising urgency to invest in new power generating capacity in the UK. Policy makers keep urging utilities to fund much-needed new capacity, but cash-constraint utilities need to first reorganise their balance sheet before they can fund new-build projects, says Ben Caldecot, head of government advisory at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
A nearly continual scale up of power demand in parts of Asia over the next 20 years might mean power-starved manufacturers in these economies seek out distributed energy, such as rented natural gas reciprocating engines, said a report by Frost & Sullivan.
Japanese utilities are rushing to step up LNG imports, spurred by Kansai Electric Power's announcement it will suspend operations of its two Ohi reactors until they comply with more stringent safety regulations. Gas-fired generation is vital to make up for the lost nuclear capacity and to avert the risk of power shortages.
Up to 2020, sales projections for distributed gas engine and turbine sales in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) applications will not be affected by shale gas prices. "Until then, country-specific policy measures, alongside slowly improving spark spreads based on non-shale energy price drivers, will be more important," says Michael Brown who leads Delta-ee's research on CHP markets.
A GDF Suez-led consortium has awarded Ansaldo Energia and FATA a turnkey construction contract, valued at $581 million (€440 million), to realise two open-cycle gas turbine power plants (OCGT) in Avon, South Africa.
Italian marine classification society RINA has approved a design for a compressed natural gas (CNG) storage system aboard vessles, which is being used as gas feed at a fuel oil peaking power plant retrofitted to run on gas in Grati, Indonesia. The 300MW unit is "the world's largest CNG storage system," according to RINA.
As the regulatory clock continues to tick and deadlines loom large on implementing new EU rules like EMIR and REMIT, some utilities "face an uphill battle" to understand and meet the obligations, warns James Brown is senior energy consultant, EMEA for Allegro Development.
"When the current ambiguities are cleared up and firm deadlines reset, everyone will be expected to switch on quickly," he said, warning "Failure to comply will be met with stiff penalties."
Despite Europe's sub-par gas demand growth, with indigenous supply collapsing and global LNG supply diverting to Asia, suppliers like Gazprom "regain the whip hand" in Europe, Deutsche Bank analysts warn.
"A market that should be in the doldrums looks poised to see prices breaking to the upside," they forecast, singling out US LNG exports as a panacea to avert the risk of high-priced oil-indexed Russian gas that threaten to further undermine the profitability of gas power generation.
News in Brief
China seen overtake Japan as worlds’ largest LNG buyer by 2025
July 15 – The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects China to overtake Japan as the world’s biggest LNG buyer with imports of 128 Bcm a year by 2025, equivalent to around 174 million tonnes. However, IEA analysts cautioned this scenario is “highly dependent on China’s future policy direction” and whether that includes an ongoing push for coal-to-gas switching for industry, residential heating and power generation.
IEA stages Clean Energy Transitions Summit
July 14 – Ministers from dozens of countries, accounting for over 80% of the world economy, have participated in the first Clean Energy Transitions Summit organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, said there “clearly is momentum” behind a sustainable recovery from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants agreed to reconvene in mid-2021.
Siemens Energy to exit coal
Jul 13 – Newly formed technology company Siemens Energy wants to phase-out any operations and technology to related to coal-fired power generation, CEO Joe Kaeser said, without giving a specific timeline. Siemens had been harshly criticised earlier this year for participating in the Adani coal mine project in Australia.
Statkraft, GE enhance GB grid stability
July 10 – Statkraft and GE Power Conversion are working together to stabilise Britain’s power grid. To that end, GE will manufacture and install two Rotating Stabiliser synchronous machines at Statkraft’s site in Keith, Moray. Statkraft was awarded four stability contracts (two at Keith and two at Lister Drive) by National Grid ESO (NGESO) earlier this year.
Siemens Energy spin-off approved
July 9 – A large majority of Siemens shareholders have voted to approve the spin-off of the company’s energy business. The spin-off was approved by 99.36 percent of capital stock represented at today’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting.
Central Hudson links solar farms to VPP
July 9 – Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp has established its distributed generation program within the broader context of New York State’s energy plan. Together with Sensus and their Remote Telemetry Module (RTM-III), the Central Hudson will monitor decentralized solar PV backed up by flexible gas gensets.
Siemens and GREEN Solar turn German town CO2-free
July 8 – GREEN Solar and Siemens Energy are jointly developing a concept for making Herzogenrath CO2-free. The plan is to provide an energy-efficient and economical combination of solar power plants, wind turbines, batteries, CHP and combined cycle power plants, as well as heat and hydrogen storage. The hybrid system will be built on the grounds of Nivelsteiner Sandwerke and will be large enough to cover the city’s entire energy demand with zero CO2 emissions by 2030.
Denmark paves the way for Nord Stream 2
July 7– Denmark on late Monday gave the Nord Stream 2 consortium permission to utilize pipe-laying vessels with anchors in Danish waters, paving the way for the Gazprom-led consortium to complete the interconnector. Construction of the 1,230-kilometre pipeline is nearly complete, except for a final stretch of about 120-kilometers in Danish waters. The project was halted in December when the Swiss-Dutch pipe-laying company Allseas suspended works over threats of U.S. sanctions.
EPRI tests early warning system
July 6– The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is conducting trial tests with multiple utilities across the United States of an early warning system. It can detect an off-gassing event as a precursor to thermal runaway up to 30 minutes prior to a cascading failure. This gives plant operators time to mitigate the problem or shut down the system.
KKR buys stake in First Gen
July 3 – Valorous Asia Holdings, owned by KKR investment funds, has bought a 11.9% stake in First Gen through a voluntary tender offer. First Gen, one of the Philippines’ largest independent power producers with 3,492 MW installed capacity, is owned by First Philippine Holdings which is controlled by the Lopez family. KKR’s acquisition of the First Gen stake is worth nearly $192.3 million.
Gazprom’s ‘BBB’ rating affirmed
July 2 – S&P Global Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have affirmed Gazprom's long-term credit ratings as part of their annual reviews. The ‘BBB’ ratings for Gazprom from S&P and Fitch are in line with the sovereign credit rating of the Russian Federation, while Moody's ‘Baa2’ rating is a notch higher.
MHIEC to refurbish WtE plant in Kushiro
July 1 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co (MHIEC) has received an order from the Kushiro Wide-Area Federation to repair and improve the core equipment at the local Waste-to-Energy plant in Takayama. The WtE plant has a capacity of 240 tonnes per day (tpd). Renovation will increase the energy efficiency of the fluidized bed type gasification and ash melting furnace facility, reducing emissions by around 15% annually. Works are due completed in September 2023.
Nigeria: Only two of six power projects on target
June 30 – Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises has disclosed that only two out of six privatized power plants were delivered on target. Only Transcorp Power Ltd and Geregu Power Ltd out of the six privatised electricity generation companies (GENCOs) were said to have met their performance targets since taking over.
German investors prefer solar over wind
June 29 – Energy infrastructure investors are keen to build solar power projects in Germany, but shun wind parks. In the latest solar power auction, investors offered to build almost 450 MW of capacity – more than four times the 96 MW of volume on offer– with the average successful bid at 5.27 cents per kilowatt-hour (ct/kWh). The wind auction, in contrast, was undersubscribed: The German network agency (BNetzA) tendered around 826 MW, but successful bids only totalled 464 MW, at an average price of 6.14 ct/KWh.
MAN ventures into synthetic fuels
June 26 – MAN Energy Solutions has entered the hydrogen economy with the recent pro rata acquisition of H-TEC SYSTEMS, an electrolysis tech firm. The German OEM also committed itself to upgrading its gas turbines to run on 100% hydrogen by 2030.
Varegro starts using Cummins gas genset
June 25 – Belgian-based horticultural company Varegro, has started to use a Cummins HSK78G gas generator to power its greenhouses in Oostrozebeke, West Flanders. Varegro said it selected the Cummins HSK78G genset to produce combined heat and power (CHP) on its premises at a competitive cost for use in energy-intensive greenhouse facilities.
GE names Deloitte as independent auditor
June 24 – GE’s audit committee has selected Deloitte as the company’s independent auditor for the 2021 fiscal year, replacing KPMG. The selection of Deloitte concludes GE’s latest audit tender process.
