London (Platts)--29Nov2012/826 am EST/1326 GMT
National governments from the EU's 27 member states should avoid setting up conflicting national systems for encouraging back-up power generation capacity, EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger told members of the European Parliament's energy committee Thursday. He was speaking on the EC's recently concluded review of the internal energy market, which put the case for more cross-border trade to help smooth out the peaks and troughs caused by increasingly intermittent generation from sources like wind and solar power. "Going back to national capacity markets is something that, categorically, I would say is the wrong way to go," Oettinger said in response to a question from UK center party MEP Fiona Hall, who said capacity mechanisms risked creating difficulties in the EU single market. Several EU countries are looking at developing capacity mechanisms to pay generators for keeping generation on stand-by in case it is needed when intermittent renewable generation fails. The UK, for example, in its energy bill published Thursday, has created powers to introduce a capacity market, allowing for capacity auctions from 2014 for delivery in the winter of 2018/19, if needed. Article continues below...Platts 7th Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage 2013: January 31 & February 1, 2013, The Tower, London, UK Platts 7th Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage 2013 conference will provide market participants with a comprehensive overview of the European and international CCS market and its development, focusing on: What needs to be done to accelerate the successful deployment of CCS in Europe;Critical updates on the current state of CCS policy frameworks in practice;Exploring long-term business models for European CCS and large scale storage and assess European cluster and hub complex development;Evaluating the issue of long-term liability and risk transfer.
National governments from the EU's 27 member states should avoid setting up conflicting national systems for encouraging back-up power generation capacity, EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger told members of the European Parliament's energy committee Thursday. He was speaking on the EC's recently concluded review of the internal energy market, which put the case for more cross-border trade to help smooth out the peaks and troughs caused by increasingly intermittent generation from sources like wind and solar power. "Going back to national capacity markets is something that, categorically, I would say is the wrong way to go," Oettinger said in response to a question from UK center party MEP Fiona Hall, who said capacity mechanisms risked creating difficulties in the EU single market. Several EU countries are looking at developing capacity mechanisms to pay generators for keeping generation on stand-by in case it is needed when intermittent renewable generation fails. The UK, for example, in its energy bill published Thursday, has created powers to introduce a capacity market, allowing for capacity auctions from 2014 for delivery in the winter of 2018/19, if needed.
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Platts 7th Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage 2013 conference will provide market participants with a comprehensive overview of the European and international CCS market and its development, focusing on:
Oettinger said on November 15 that the EU was opening a consultation on the design of capacity mechanisms so they are in line with the EU single market. "There are many questions. Are we going to have capacity mechanisms just for gas-fired plants, or also for coal? Do we cover just existing plants, or is that unfair on new plants... We can't have people saying they are in favor of EU integration but then compartmentalizing markets into 27 different markets. We need EU capacity markets not national ones," Oettinger said. MORE 'BACKBONE' WITH RUSSIA He also urged governments to avoid developing lots of different national positions on gas, especially in negotiations with external suppliers like Russia. Several governments have recently signed deals with Russia's Gazprom on building the planned South Stream pipeline from the Black Sea to southeast Europe. "Every time the Gazprom helicopter's in EU capitals, they roll out the red carpets, agreements are signed and then the governments come back to the EC and say: 'protect us!' I urge MEPs here today to go back to their governments and stress the need for them to show some more backbone in these negotiations with the Russians," he said. He also said the EC should negotiate collectively with Russia on the environmental and safety aspects of new agreements. --Paul Whitehead, paul_whitehead@platts.com--Edited by Jonathan Fox, jonathan_fox@platts.com
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