German renewables cover nearly 100pc of demand

OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2016. German renewable power generation met almost 100pc of domestic demand for the first time yesterday, preliminary data from German research institute Agora Energiewende show.

Combined generation from wind, solar, hydro power and biomass installations exceeded 45GW during four hours yesterday from 11:00 CEST (09:00 GMT) to 14:00 CEST, the data show.

Combined output from the four renewable energy sources made up 89.7pc of domestic demand at 11:00 CEST, a share which increased to more than 99pc at 13:00 CEST and 14:00 CEST.

Low Sunday demand combined with typically low seasonal demand for heating and lack of air conditioning demand to reduce consumption levels. This contributed to enabling the high share of renewable power to meet domestic demand.

Wind power, solar power, hydropower and biomass power generation exceeded output from thermal plants, including from nuclear, lignite, hard coal and gas-fired power plants in all but the last four hours of the day when solar power generation subsided, according to the Agora data.

Thermal power generation was in an hourly range of 7.7GW and 27.2GW yesterday. At no time did gas-fired, hard coal-fired, lignite-fired or nuclear power generation cease completely, fuel type-specific data from the transparency platform operated by the European Energy Exchange show. Output from gas-fired power plants averaged 1GW and hard coal-fired generation averaged 1.9GW yesterday, with the two contributing the lowest share to the German electricity generation mix.

Day-ahead prices for Sunday delivery settled at €7.40/MWh for base load and €0.07/MWh for peak load in the German-Austrian auction on the Paris-based Epex Spot exchange. In the Epex Spot-operated intra-day power market, German prices for Sunday delivery settled at €12.27/MWh for base load and €10.97/MWh for peak load.

Even Germany's most modern coal plants, with an efficiency of 46pc, would not have been able to recoup generation costs for base-load delivery yesterday as the break-even price, on a marginal cost basis, stood at around €17.72/MWh, based on Argus' Friday assessment for API2 coal swaps and EU Emissions Scheme prompt prices. The marginal break-even prices for a 59pc-efficient gas plant in the Gaspool hub area stood at around €24.03/MWh yesterday.

But must-run capacity, such as from combined heat and power plants or power plants providing balancing energy, prevented gas-fired and coal-fired plants from shutting down to 0MW capacity when renewable power generation was high and clean dark and spark spreads were negative.

Combined renewable power and thermal generation exceeded domestic demand during all hours yesterday in Germany, spurring high power exports. German net exports peaked at nearly 8GW at 13:00 CEST yesterday, according to the preliminary Agora data.

Germany's government has a target for renewable energy to meet 40-45pc of German gross power demand by 2025. Renewable energy has on average met a third of German gross electricity consumption so far this year.