Hydropower operation in a changing environment
| Type of publication: | Proceedings |
| Citation: | |
| Booktitle: | Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM) |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Publisher: | IEEE |
| Abstract: | In Europe hydropower (HP) plays an important role in the energy transition by increasing its generation while at the same time ensure system security by providing back-up and storage capacity and flexibility. However, due to low electricity market prices the profitability of HP is decreased. In this paper, we analyze historic revenue potentials and future market prospects for hydropower taking into account different paths towards the energy future. We develop a short-term HP operation model to capture both the market opportunities of HP companies and the technical and natural constraints of the plants. The model framework is applied to three generic HP plants which should be representative for Switzerland. Looking back into the past, the electricity spot prices strongly decreased over the years. Consequently, the revenues of HP plants in the spot market dropped significantly in the last years. However, in theory balancing markets could provide significant additional revenues for HP plants. Taking into account uncertainties and market characteristics the potential of the balancing markets is reduced but cross-market optimization was still beneficial. Looking into the future, the market price prospects for coming decade are low to modest and the existing EU capacity structure will likely remain stable. The global fuel markets and the ETS will be the decision makers for Swiss HP. The balancing market benefits will be significantly reduced in the future if full Swiss HP aims for balancing. While optimized operation across markets helps Swiss HP to increase its revenues, it is limited in scale. |
| Keywords: | Balancing, Cross-market optimization, hydro power, Switzerland |
| Authors | |
| Added by: | [] |
| Total mark: | 0 |
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