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Producción y mercados energéticos 15/03/19

Latest Energy News

15 March 2019

TOP STORY: RWE plans to add 9 GW of renewable capacity in the next 3 years (Germany) German power utility RWE has announced plans regarding the future development of its newly created subsidiary RWE Renewables, which will add up to 3 GW per year of new installed capacity around the world over the next three years. This expansion will be driven by annual investments of approximately €1.5bn. The utility will concentrate on three main regions, i.e. its core markets in Europe, the Americas and new potential markets in the Asia-Pacific region. As for the technologies, it will focus on both offshore and onshore wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and electricity storage. The group’s installed power generation capacity declined by nearly 1.6 GW to 41.7 GW in 2018, of which 13.5 GW for lignite and nuclear plants (-5.9%). Most of its capacity is located in Germany (23.3 GW), the United Kingdom (8.6 GW), the Netherlands and Belgium (4.6 GW) and Turkey (0.8 GW). The company’s power generation fell by 12% to 176 TWh in 2018, due to the phase out of the 1,284 MW Gundremmingen B nuclear power plant in late 2017, to the sale of the Matra lignite-fired power plant in Hungary and to the decommissioning of four 300 MW lignite-fired units in Germany. Overall, lignite and nuclear generation fell by 15% in 2018. Gas-fired power generation also contracted owing to unfavourable market conditions. Renewable power generation also declined, due to low wind availability in the United Kingdom and Central Europe. RWE’s electricity sales declined by 5% to 216 TWh in 2018, while gas sales rose by 5% to 67 TWh. The company is engaged in an asset swap with E.ON, pursuant to which the two utilities will conduct an extensive exchange of shareholdings and business activities. RWE will receive Innogy and E.ON’s entire renewable energy subsidiaries along with a 16.67% shareholding in E.ON, while E.ON will acquire RWE’s share of 76.8% in Innogy.

Companies Shell intends to become a global power supplier by 2030 (Netherlands) Global oil and gas company Shell has issued its 2018 results. The group is preparing for a strategy shift in global energy supplies towards lower-carbon sources and aims at becoming a large electricity supplier by the 2030s. For this purpose, it plans to invest up to US$2bn per year on its new-energies division (including electricity) by 2020,… Read more German energy group E.ON reports higher renewable earnings in 2018 German energy group E.ON has released its 2018 results. The group’s Energy Networks branch delivered 192 TWh of electricity in 2018 (107 TWh in Germany and 37 TWh in Sweden) and 135 TWh of gas (89 TWh in Germany and 27 TWh in Romania). The group claimed a market share of 19% for electricity and 10% for gas in Germany and 25% for electricity in Sweden. Through its Customer Solutions branch,… Read more Uniper (E.ON) demands compensation for Datteln-4 power plant (Germany) German power company Uniper will seek meaningful compensation for its new 1,055 MW Datteln-4 supercritical coal-fired power plant project currently under construction near Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), which may be forced to be kept off the grid as part of the German government’s plan to phase out coal-fired power generation. Read more Policy & Regulatory European Commission specifies sustainability criteria for biofuels The European Commission (EC) has adopted a new delegated act which sets out the criteria for determining high ILUC-risk feedstock for biofuels along with the criteria for certifying low indirect land-use change (ILUC) risks induced by biofuels, bioliquids and other biomass fuels. Read more New Mexico joins California and Hawaii (US) in 100% renewables mandate The House of Representatives of New Mexico (United States) has passed a bill requiring the state’s power utilities to generate 50% of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2030, from the current 20%. The renewable share will be progressively raised to 80% by 2040 and eventually 100% by 2045. Read more Energy Markets Gazprom’s natural gas production rose by 5.7% in 2018 (Russia) Russian state-owned gas group Gazprom produced nearly 498 bcm (+5.7%) of natural gas in 2018. The third gas production facility at Bovanenkovskoye, the main field in the Yamal Peninsula with gas reserves totalling 4,900 bcm, went onstrem in 2018 and reached its design production capacity of 115 bcm (production capacity of 317 mcm/d in winter). Read more Infrastructure & Investments A new 2 GW coal-fired project may replace Liddell plant (Australia) Kaisun Holdings, China Energy Engineering and Australian Cavcorp have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the conversion of the Hunter Economic Zone in Kurri Kurri (New South Wales, Australia) into a 2,000 MW coal-fired power complex. Read more Shell, Eneco bid for Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind project (Netherlands) Global oil and gas company Shell has teamed up with the Dutch energy company Eneco and the offshore wind project developer Van Oord and set a special company, the Witwind consortium, to bid for the construction and operation of the Hollandse Kust Zuid 3 and 4 offshore wind projects, in the Dutch part of the North Sea. Read more