Anforderungen an den konventionellen Kraftwerkspark – wieviel und welche Kraftwerkskapazit?t wird ben?tigt?

The electricity supply system will, particularly in Germany, significantly be determined by the use of renewable energy sources. A?decreasing energetic utilization along with an increasing flexibility demand lead to chancing requirements for the conventional plant fleet. The question arises to what extent conventional generation capacity is needed in the future and if??compared to today??additional technical requirements have to be fulfilled due to the increased flexibility demand. Furthermore it has to be discussed how a required capacity level can be achieved and if??and under which conditions??today??s market design is sufficient or if additional capacity mechanism are necessary. These questions are discussed in this article. The questions as to the required capacity level and the means to achieve it depend on the perspective, which is chosen with respect to security of supply. Choosing a European perspective, i.e. a common responsibility for an appropriate level of security of supply in Europe, additional capacity mechanism are not necessary. Choosing a national perspective, i.e. requiring that national demand can??theoretically??be covered by capacity available in the particular country, does not only significantly increase the necessary amount of generation capacity but also??due to the fact that the electricity market already today is organized on a European rather than a national basis??requires additional capacity mechanisms to cover capacity demand. With respect to the flexibility demand a concerted as well as coordinated acting of the different independent market players is necessary to cover a more volatile residual load. However, there is no additional demand for technical flexibility.