Ein Vergleich ausgewählter europäischer Strombörsen

We study the rules of selected european energy exchanges and compare their institutional design. In most countries (except for the UK) a uniform price mechanism is used. The rules differ, however, in the possibilities to express complementary cost components in the bids. Also the degree of international coupling of markets is very different across countries. Our comparison of the markets allows to identify attractive trading rules and yields insights on an effective electricity market design.     

Versorgungssicherheit auf Elektrizitätsmärkten — Investitionsdilemma durch ineffizientes Marktdesign?

This article addresses the investment dilemma in the area of power generation, which in insufficiently designed, liberalized power markets leads macroeconomically to undesirably low levels of energy supply security. The prime causes for this dilemma in the German power market are rooted first in damages for suppliers which are limited in cases of generation capacity-induced power failures and second in the time delay between the final trading opportunity and the actual power delivery. The latter inhibits the ability to individually balance unexpected changes in rates of power generation and discharge at any time. Furthermore, the following factors contribute to an intensification of the dilemma: insufficient end user participation in the wholesale market, a lack of single end user cut-off options, as well as time lags in the construction of generation capacities combined with various market uncertainties. Potential approaches to a sustainable improvement of supply security include on the one hand an increase in liquidity of intraday trading to align market clearing and power delivery as closely as possible. The promotion of direct marketing for renewable energy along with other strategies will lead to such an improvement. On the other hand, end users’ utilization of smart meters should be enhanced. Thus, peak load could be moderated and allows for the inclusion of end users’ willingness to pay into the wholesale market.     

Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Photovoltaik im deutschen Energiemix – Neudefinition des Ansatzes der Netzparität

Photovoltaics are one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world. Despite high costs and a limited energy yield, attractive support schemes particularly the German renewable energy law have paved the way for the strong market growth of this technology within the last decade. Here the question arises as to when photovoltaics will reach a competitive level in Germany without the support of subsidies. The prominent grid parity approach is simple and considered critical in this discussion. It is critical because of the different references regarding the costs of electricity generated by a newly installed PV system and the electricity price of private households, which consists of electricity generation, distribution, sales as well as taxes and duties on the one hand. On the other hand, there are different time references in the calculation of electricity generation costs and electricity prices of private households. Transferring the approach of Levelized Costs of Electricity (LCOE) to all power generation plants within the energy mix means a redefinition of the grid parity of photovoltaics will be carried out. Here the electricity generation costs of photovoltaics as well as the energy mix will be calculated in the same way. The LCOE calculation refers to the whole life cycle of every power generation plant. That is why a balance between the high investment costs of photovoltaics and the increasing operation costs of fossil fuelled power plants is made. It can be shown that the reaching of competitiveness of photovoltaics in Germany depends on structural changes in electricity generation and it is to be realized within the anticipated time frame until the year 2020.     

Energiewende: Alles eine Frage der Partizipation? Governance-Herausforderungen zwischen Zentralität und Dezentralität

The interaction of centralised and decentralised elements is not only a challenge for the technical und functional implementation of the energy transition, but also for the political and social assignment of developing adequate governance strategies for future energy systems. While “participation” is of capital importance for all governance approaches mediating centralising and decentralising trends, it is far from clear, how participation is to be realized in order to promote energy transition and avoiding pitfalls and flaws of participative decision making processes. Against the backdrop of a multi-dimensional understanding of “participation” comprising procedural, factual, legitimatory and meta-reflective functions, the paper considers the tense relations of participation and efficiency, legitimacy and professionalized expertise, thereby identifying structural challenges for participation in democratic societies. Finally, some suggestions are made, how the governance of the energy transition can be shaped in the future.     

Design von Informationsfeedback in Regelenergiemärkten

Information feedback is a much debated issue on balancing power markets: which information on past auctions should be published and when? The article analyzes advantages and disadvantages of different feedback policies applied to the example of the Swiss balancing power market. Our main conclusion is that the publication of the marginal bid is usually recommendable. This is often not the case for additional information (e.g. extramarginal bids). However, the answer depends on the specific market design and the market structure.     

Suffizienzorientierte Geschäftsmodelle am Beispiel von Stromspeichern

Business models are essential tools for understanding and creating the logic of a company’s business including all relevant stakeholders’ activities. Despite the knowledge of the organic-systematic interdependencies from companies with other stakeholders, business models of the energy economy primarily aim to transfer their value propositions via revenue streams into economical value. This article provides solutions for theoretical and practical extensions of business models for energy storaging to ensure they are sustainable in the future. Sufficiency-oriented energy storage business models are described as a sustainable framework.     

CO2-Einsparpotenziale des Energieträgers Erdgas

Given the governmental climate targets, the question arises how these targets can be achieved without affecting a secure and cheap energy supply. As natural gas causes less carbon emissions than any other fossil fuel it might be able to make a contribution in this regard. Currently, in the generation of heat and power natural gas plays a significant role, which will further increase in the future. Using several scenarios, we predict the development of the importance of natural gas and the consequences for carbon emissions. The calculations show that the share of natural gas for the supply of heat will increase from 46 % to 56 %. Efficiency increases together with changes in the structure of power generation can reduce heating-related carbon emissions by 8.3 % until 2020. For power generation, we calculate alternative scenarios. If the current structure of power generation is held constant, carbon emissions will increase by 0.8 % p.a. If instead natural gas completely replaces coal and lignite, the carbon emissions will be reduced by 1.9 % per year.     

Der Marktplatz E-Energy aus elektrizitätswirtschaftlicher Perspektive

The E-Energy Market is the place in a future energy system that integrates the markets for energy and Information/Communication Technologies (ICT). From the economic perspective of electricity, business models and business cases can already be developed for sub-markets and sub-areas of network load management, wholesale marketing and energy-market regulations, which as core elements manage consumer load in the mass customer area. As it turns out, the expected surplus value for all business cases is still tightly assessed and the E-Energy Market is therefore no automatic process. It has been assumed that the costs of the necessary information and communication technologies either do not have to be observed or are relatively insignificant. Additionally, considerable fine-tuning of the design of the sub-markets and the regulatory framework is necessary in order to enable the possibility for the business cases to be implemented. In a larger perspective, however, this market will play an important role when it comes to optimizing the power system around fluctuating power generation.     

Europäische Klimapolitik: Zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit

In order to restrict the risks of anthropogenic climate change to a ?tolerable“ extent, the fourth assessment report of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change calls for a trend reversal towards globally decreasing greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades which ultimately must lead to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions until the mid of the century by 50 percent as compared to 2000 emission levels. The European Union claims a lead of a role in climate policy with the objective to push forward international negotiations on far-reaching emission reduction commitments with other important industrialized and developing regions. The EU’s credibility as a leading force will hinge crucially on how successfully it can fulfill its emission reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by means of market-based environmental policy, in particular the exemplary operation of the EU emission trading system. Against this background, the following article provides a critical assessment of the EU’s climate policy.     

Auswirkungen der europäischen Energiepolitik auf den deutschen Atomausstieg

After the election of the new German government on September 27th, 2009, the nuclear power phase-out decision appears back on top of the political agenda. Hence, an up to date survey of all relevant arguments seems absolutely necessary. In that matter, the scope should not remain national but should also take the European dimension into account.On the European level, a position in favour of nuclear power becomes apparent. Recent political decisions among the 27 member states show a renaissance of atomic energy. EU-Parliament, EU-Commission and EU-Council have all voted for the extensive, long term use of nuclear power in Europe. With its phase-out decision still valid, Germany is part of a minority in Europe.Germany is part of a European market for electricity whose national barriers will blur more and more in the future to form a fully integrated pan-European market in the end. Since nuclear power will provide a major share of the European electricity generation mix, Germany will always be supplied with atomic energy in the long term. This is imperative, regardless of nuclear power plants operating within the borders of Germany or not. Shutting down these facilities in Germany will hence not make the risks associated with atomic energy disappear. It will only add energy-technical challenges to assure long-term supply security. Thus, the new German government should withdraw the phase-out decision.     

Verlustwärme von Offshore-Gleichstrom-Seekabelsystemen – Entstehung und Übertragung

In Germany heat dissipation of subsea cables for power transmission from offshore wind farms into the sea floor is regulated. The precautionary value to be adhered to is a maximum temperature increase of 2?K in 20 to 30?cm sea bed depth. Such a temperature increase is defined by a number of influencing factors and boundary conditions and is extremely difficult to physically measure. Thus the purpose of this paper is to simulate the heat generation of DC submarine cables and the dissipation into the surrounding sea floor using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Herewith crucial parameters and influencing factors can be identified. The results show that the strongest influencing factors on the sediment temperature in 20 to 30?cm sea floor depth are the average load or longer-term preload of the cable, the burial depth and the thermal resistance of the sediment. Overall, during standard operation of wind farms and the corresponding cable systems the 2?K limit is adhered to safely. In general, this also applies to special wind and load situations.     

Betriebsoptimierung großtechnischer Kälteversorgungsverbunde bei limitierter Datengrundlage

Energy in the form of cold is required by many commercial and industrial companies in Germany. The demand ranges from space cooling to food refrigeration up to applications with very specific requirements, as it is the case with medical devices. From a certain size of the company, the cooling supply usually takes place in a central refrigeration network fed by several cooling units. The operation of several cooling units allows the individual systems to be controlled in such a way that they operate within the optimum range of operating. In practice, the primary goal is often only to cover the required cooling demand to ensure the underlying processes, so that there is a high potential for operational optimization. Existing models usually require lots of measurement points or historical data to model the efficiency behavior of cooling machines. Therefore, a methodological approach is presented in this work, which, on the one hand, models the efficiency profile of cooling units as a function of the ambient temperature and the utilization, and on the other hand, an energetically optimized schedule for the cooling units can be assessed underlying a limited data basis. The developed approach is subsequently applied to a specific application and validated.     

Elektroautos in einer von erneuerbaren Energien geprägten Energiewirtschaft

The German Federal Government wants to establish Germany as a leading market for electric mobility. Potential environmental benefits and changes in the economic framework conditions of the energy sector are described in this paper. In order to quantify the electricity split which is actually used for charging electric vehicles, two economic models for the energy sector, a model for the market penetration of electric vehicles, a vehicle model and an LCA model are brought together. Based on an assumed dynamic increase of electric vehicles to 12 million in 2030, an additional electricity demand of about 18 TWh is calculated. If the vehicles are charged directly after their last daily trip, the peak load increases by 12%—despite the small increase in electricity demand. First model calculations for the development of the European power generation system show that the direct impact on the construction of new power plants remains low even until 2030. An impact of electric mobility on CO₂ certificate prices can only be seen from 2025 onwards and is limited to an increase in certificate prices by a maximum of 8 % in 2030. An optimisation is possible with intelligent charging strategies: The peak load without demand side management can be reduced by 5 GW and about 600 GWh of additional wind energy can used which would otherwise have been throttled due to feed-in management—about 3.5 % of the total electricity demand of electric vehicles. On the other hand, demand side management leads to more coal power plants instead of gas power plants being used to meet the additional electricity demand. If additional renewable sources are installed along with demand side management, the electricity for electric vehicles is almost carbon free. This is also reflected in the life cycle balance of electric vehicles which also includes vehicle and battery production: With today’s average electricity split in Germany, the greenhouse gas emissions of electric vehicles are about comparable to vehicles with conventional combustion engines. However, the electricity split in 2030 or the use of additional renewable energy sources lead to a significant advantage in the greenhouse gas balance.     

Smart Meter-Angebote: Eine empirische Untersuchung von Kundenpräferenzen

The implementation of smart meters in German households by 2032 is a major step in the transition towards an intelligent and connected energy system. Despite of federal legislation providing a structured plan for the nationwide smart meter rollout including basic product requirements, actors within the energy market have the opportunity to take an active part in shaping the market through appealing product offers and hence to create competitive advantage. This study identifies relevant features of smart meters from literature und business practice, and measures customer’s preferences for these features. Results indicate predominantly positive customer evaluations of smart meter features, amongst which the availability of consumption data, the installation price and rental charges as well as time variable tariffs contribute most to overall utility of smart meters. Finally, findings suggest targeting customers by defining strategies to address privacy concerns, to educate about saving potentials as well as to create differentiated pricing schemes.     

Verteilungsaspekte einer Harmonisierung der europäischen Klimaschutzmaßnahmen

The ongoing harmonisation of the European energy sector has led to gains from growth and increasing efficiencies by creating a common European internal market. However, there are new tendencies running against harmonisation in recent years, currently for example in the area of climate protection and the associated expansion of renewable energies. In addition to the role of national targets for climate protection in combination with a European emissions trading system, carrying out the related measures leads to distributional effects, both between countries and between stakeholders (e. g., producers and consumers) in these countries. We first analyse the impact of a non-harmonised national promotion schemes for renewable energies on electricity and CO₂ prices in different countries. Then we illustrate the impact of harmonisation measures on producers and consumers in the participating countries. The analysis shows that these measures are indeed economically beneficial, but that—depending on the actual configuration—they can also lead to disadvantages for individual actors. Analysing and discussing these effects leads to a better assessment of the impact of certain measures and enables a better classification of individual market participants’ responses and opinions.     

„Collaborative Governance“ – ein neues Konzept für die Regulierung der europäischen Strom- und Gasmärkte?

Current British and American publications about the liberalization of electricity and gas markets demand a paradigm shift in the regulation of energy networks. These publications can be subsumed under the scientific debate about “collaborative governance” in the USA. They call for an integration of network users and consumers into the regulatory process. Their philosophy resembles the philosophy of the negotiated third party access in Germany from 1998 till 2005. Their regulatory strategy might be more effective than the actual European “command and control” strategy in establishing competitive energy markets. This article examines and evaluates these publications and their regulatory strategy.     

Dezentrale Steuerung eines Pools von Wärmepumpen auf Basis spieltheoretischer Methoden

An intelligent coupling of the power and the heat sector offers huge possibilities for the integration of electric energy from fluctuating, renewable energies. In this regard heat pumps depict a highly efficient way of power-heat-coupling. However, for a pool of heat pumps this potential can only be exploited effectively with a suitable control methodology. Such a control methodology makes it possible to enforce – depending on the specific case of application – a system-compatible behavior of the pool of heat pumps. In this respect a decentralized control approach offers a higher scalability compared with a centralized control approach. Thus a decentralized control approach based on game-theoretic methods is developed and presented here. For this purpose three game-theoretic optimization algorithms are examined. Their performance is analyzed and evaluated for two specific cases of application (reduction of peak load and tracking of a predefined load profile) by means of simulation. The results of both case studies illustrate, that game-theoretic control is easily applicable and can effectively be used to control a pool of heat pumps. Furthermore the developed control methodology can principally be adapted and utilized for all other electric loads with inherent storage functionality.     

Bedeutung von CO2-Transport- und Speicheroptionen im europäischen Energiesystem

Aiming the stabilisation of the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere at 450 ppm, a strong climate policy in the EU-27 will be required. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and the building up of a CO₂ pipeline system will be one option to avoid climate change. The analysis of the potential CO₂ storage options in Europe shows a huge potential in the North Sea and their neighbouring countries and only less potentials in the southern European countries. A scenario analysis using the European energy system model TIMES PanEU shows that the installation of CO₂ transport pipelines for cross boarder exchange of CO₂ from power plants located next to the boarder could be one possible infrastructure solution. This solution is a cost efficient option which will be used mainly by the North Sea neighbouring countries (Germany, UK, the Netherlands, Denmark) and Poland. A central pipeline grid in the North Sea for the usage of huge storage options like the Utsira formation will be important in the future for countries with limited CO₂ storage capacities (like Belgium or the Netherlands). If cheap storage options like onshore Aquifers are not available, the design of central CO₂ pipeline grids has a strong impact on the power plant structure, the electricity and CO₂ certificate price. Based on a limited availability of onshore CO₂ storages the electricity price will increase by up to 16 € 2007/MWh and the CO₂-certificate price will rise by additional 35 € 2007/t CO₂ in 2050.     

Klimawandel: Wahrnehmung und Einschätzungen der deutschen Haushalte im Herbst 2012

This article presents results that are obtained from a survey among private households in Germany, which took place in the fall of 2012. A key result is that in comparison with a range of other global challenges, respondents are less concerned with fighting climate change, a remarkable outcome given that the share of climate change skeptics in the survey is likely to be lower than in the population owing to selfselection problems. This article addresses such self-selection problems, as well as other shortcomings of surveys, and provides for a discussion on how to cope with them.     

Optimierte Integration der Elektromobilität in das Stromversorgungssystem bei hohen Anteilen erneuerbarer Energien

Electric mobility will play a key role for the transformation of the energy supply in Germany [the “Energiewende”]. A successful market development of plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles and a full fleet penetration in the long-term are the most efficient and effective measure for integrating large amounts of renewable energy into the transport sector and for reaching the efficiency targets. These new electricity consumers in the supply system will cause additional electricity loads strongly dependent on the mobility needs of the vehicle users. A controlled battery charging is able to avoid new peak demands and to increase the efficiency of the power generation system by using excess power. By scenario analysis, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and the Institute for High Voltage Technology of the RWTH Aachen investigated a possible successful development path of electric mobility in Germany and its integration into and interaction with the future power supply system. From both perspectives—the one of the total supply system as well as the other of local distribution grids—the results show promising potentials but also limits.