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Producción y mercados energéticos 28/01/19

Latest Energy News

28 January 2019

TOP STORY: France submits revised version of PPE energy plan for consultation The French Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition has issued the updated proposal of the revised PPE energy plan (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l’Énergie), which will define France’s energy policy for the periods 2019-2023 and 2024-2028. It has been submitted to several consultative bodies and the final version is slated for summer 2019. The updated version details measures to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050, including a strong reduction in fossil fuel consumption compared with 2012 levels (-20% in primary consumption of fossil fuels in 2023 and -35% in 2028) and in final energy consumption (-7% in 2023 and -14% in 2028). The 10-year energy plan also aims to raise the share of renewables in final energy consumption, from 16% in 2017 to 25% in 2023 and 34-38% in 2028. Renewables should cover 35% of electricity consumption in 2023 (20% in 2016) and 48-52% in 2028 (27% of power generation in 2023 and 36% in 2028). The PPE expects the domestic renewable energy power generation capacities to reach 74 GW in 2023 and 102-113 GW by 2028, including include over 26 GW of hydropower, over 34 GW of onshore wind power, around 5 GW of offshore wind, 35-44 GW of solar PV, 800 MW of wood-based biomass and over 300 MW of biogas. To reach these goals, the PPE details the renewable tenders schedule between 2019 and 2024: around 2 GW/year of onshore wind (1.6 GW in 2019 and 1.8 GW in 2020), 2 GW/year of ground-based solar and 900 MW/year of rooftop solar. As for nuclear, the PPE recommends to reduce the share of nuclear in the French power generation mix to below the 50% threshold by 2035: 4 to 6 nuclear reactors will be shut down by 2028 (including the Fessenheim ones) to have 14 reactors rated 900 MW each shut by 2035. Energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should then fall by 14% between 2016 and 2023 (277 MtCO2eq), to reach 227 Mt in 2028 (-30% between 2016 and 2028). The PPE also aims to nearly triple biogas production between 2016 (5.4 TWh) and 2023 (14 TWh) and to raise it to 24-32 TWh in 2028. Biogas is set to represent between 6% and 8% of the total gas consumption by 2028. The share of first generation biofuels in fuel consumption should remain stable at around 7% and that of advanced biofuels should increase 12-fold for gasoline and 9-fold for diesel compared to 2017. Renewable heat consumption should rise to 196 TWh in 2023 (+25% compared to 2016) and to 218-247 TWh in 2028 (+40-60%), covering 35% to 39% of total heat consumption. The government will also have to manage the evolution of the regulated electricity tariff, to which nearly 80% of households subscribe. The energy regulator CRE will deliberate on the level of the increase in February 2019.

Companies Hitachi reshuffles involvement in wind turbine industry (Japan) A few days after it decided decided to scrap the £16bn (€18bn) Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project in Anglesey (United Kingdom) due to economic reasons, the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has announced that it will withdraw from wind turbine production in the face of a small domestic market and strong competition overseas. Instead,… Read more Policy & Regulatory Russia clears US$29bn upgrade programme for 41 GW of thermal power plants The Russian Ministry of Energy has approved a RUB1,900bn (US$29bn) programme for the modernisation of the domestic thermal power plants for the 2022-2031 period. Approximately 41 GW of power generation capacity – i.e. around 1/4 of the total thermal power capacity in Russia – is concerned, of which 2 GW in the Far East region. Read more Energy Markets US 2018 coal production and consumption slightly declined in 2018 According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic coal production decreased by 2.6% in 2018. Meanwhile, coal prices rose in three of the five major coal-producing regions, in particular the Northern and Central Appalachian basins. Production increased in two of the five major coal-producing basins (Central Appalachian and Illinois),…. Read more Infrastructure & Investments Chinese government approves new coal mining project in Xinjiang The Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) has given the green light for a new 4 Mt/year open-pit coal mining project in the Xinjiang autonomous region in northwestern China, which will benefit from a total investment of CNY854m (US$126m). Xinjiang is the fourth Chinese region in terms of coal production and produced 167 Mt of coal in 2017 (compared with 120 Mt in 2011). Read more ExxonMobil books LNG regasification capacity at Wilhelmshaven (Germany) The German energy group Uniper has signed a Heads of Agreements (HoA) with oil and gas company ExxonMobil on the long-term booking of a substantial share of regasification capacity at Uniper’s LNG import project in Wilhelmshaven (Germany). Discussions are expected to continue in the coming months with the goal to enter into binding agreements. Read more Last unit of 1.5 GW Lackawanna gas-fired plant begins operations (US) US power generation company Invenergy has commissioned the third and last unit of the 1,485 MW Lackawanna Energy Center, a CCGT power project located in the Lackawanna county (Pennsylvania, United States). The power plant has now entered full commercial operation. Read more