Future Market Value of Flexibility, Related Technical Requirements and Consequential Strategies for Coal Power Plant Operators
(Room G104, Auditorium Centre, First Floor)
09 Jun 15
2:00 PM
-
3:30 PM
Tracks:
Theme: Operational Excellence & Flexibility
As partners for renewable generation, flexible power plants are and will be one of the required foundations for a successful power system transition. Hence, flexibility will remain of strategic importance for power plant operators, also in the future. This is true in particular for coal fired plants, as they often are at the top of the merit order and operated in mid-load or even peak-load.
However, as the market remains challenging and budgets are limited, power plant operators will have to decide which kind of flexibility improvements they invest in. For such decisions, both the commercial and the technical perspective need to be considered.
Simulations of the European power market over a complete year each for different scenarios in the future show how coal power plants will need to be operated. From these simulations, the technical capabilities that coal power plants will need in order to cope with these future requirements and their market value can be derived. The technical parameters such as load range or start-up costs can be prioritized by their future commercial importance, supporting strategic decisions on future research and investments in flexibility improvements.
Components of existing plants that are limiting these technical capabilities and ways to overcome these limitations will be presented, in particular at the example of an existing hard coal fired power plant that serves as a reference.