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Producción y mercados energéticos 21/01/19

Latest Energy News

21 January 2019

TOP STORY: Power utilities TEPCO and Ørsted join forces in offshore wind in Japan Danish power company Ørsted (former DONG Energy) and Japanese power group Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work jointly on offshore wind projects in Japan. The partnership will combine TEPCO’s expertise in the Japanese power business and Ørsted’s track record in the offshore wind sector. In particular, they will develop together the Choshi offshore wind project in the Chiba Prefecture, for which TEPCO has been carrying out a seabed survey since November 2018. Choshi is a promising site for the development of a potential offshore industry in Japan. The location of the project is not far from Japan’s first offshore wind power generation facility, which was built in 2013. TEPCO plans to invest approximately JPY1,000bn (US$9.2bn) in a new 1,000 MW offshore wind project, consisting of 200 wind turbines rated 5 MW each. Construction could start as early as fiscal 2019 (April 2019-March 2020). Power generation would be sold through the existing feed-in tariff (FIT) system. TEPCO expects to increase its renewable energy production and hit the 7 GW wind power capacity target in Japan so that it can make up for the future costs of decommissioning its nuclear reactors or removing remaining radioactive substances following the accident at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Companies Vattenfall acquires Dutch power and gas supplier Delta Energie Swedish power utility Vattenfall has announced the acquisition of the Dutch electricity and gas sales company Delta Energie, which serves about 170 000 electricity and gas customers, most of which are located in the Zeeland province (Netherlands). The Dutch firm will continue to operate as an independent company. Read more Policy & Regulatory Vietnam scraps net metering scheme for rooftop solar projects The Vietnamese government has changed the trading scheme for domestic rooftop solar projects and replaced the net metering system with a new consumption-direct supply method, which means that buyers of electricity will now directly pay for the electricity they receive from the sellers. Read more Belgium outlines new draft for power capacity remuneration scheme The Belgian Council of Ministers has cleared a new draft legislation on the power plant subsidy scheme called CRM (capacity remuneration mechanism), which will be transmitted for opinion to the Council of State. This capacity compensation mechanism represents a major reform of the electricity market that will meet a triple objective: ensuring the domestic power supply security,… Read more Energy Markets Record power volumes were traded on EPEX SPOT markets in 2018 A record volume of 567 TWh was traded on the European Power Exchange (EPEX SPOT) in 2018; this amount is 16% higher than in 2017. It represents an all-time high of annual traded volumes and even breaks the 2015 record, when 566 TWh were trade. In France, trade volumes reached 120 TWh, a number even higher than the 2016 record of 115 TWh. Read more Novatek (Russia) reports 7% production increase in 2018 Russian independent oil and gas producer Novatek has produced 548 mboe of hydrocarbons in 2018, including nearly 69 bcm of natural gas (+8.5%) and 11.8 Mt of liquids (including both crude oil and condensate, +0.2%). This represents an increase of 35 mboe (+6.9%) compared with the previous year. Read more Forecasts Renewables should be the fastest growing power source in the US by 2020 According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power are expected to be the fastest growing source of US power generation in 2019 and 2020. More specifically, utility-scale solar power generation is set to grow by 10% in 2019 and by 17% in 2020,… Read more Infrastructure & Investments EIB lends €255m to support Greece’s electricity distribution network The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend €255m to the Greek state-run power utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) under the framework of a 20-year loan, which will be guaranteed by the government. These funds will be dedicated to the improvement of the electricity distribution infrastructure across the country. Read more Chinese province of Jiangsu greenlights 6.7 GW of offshore wind projects The Chinese province of Jiangsu has approved 24 offshore wind projects with a total power generation capacity of 6,700 MW. This move is part of the province’s “Three Gorges on Sea” ambitious plan to develop 10,000 MW of offshore wind projects. Read more EU supports decommissioning of 2.6 GW Ignalina nuclear plant (Lithuania) The European Parliament has voted to reinforce the EU aid programme for dismantling the 2,600 MWe (gross) Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania. It approved a contribution of €780m in the EU 2021-2027 budget – the European Commission proposed €552m – with the Lithuanian government contributing the rest. The complete dismantling of the two reactors is slated for completion in 2038. Read more