Tag Archives: WINPWR

World

UK’s National Grid to pay people to use less power amid cold snap

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LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Britain’s National Grid (NG.L) said it would pay customers to use less power on Monday evening and that it had asked for three coal-powered generators to be warmed up in case they are needed as the country faces a snap of cold weather.

The group said that it would activate a new scheme called the Demand Flexibility Service where customers get incentives if they agree to use less power during crunch periods.

The service, which has been trialled but not run in a live situation before, would run from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, it said, adding that the move did not mean electricity supplies were at risk and advised people not to worry.

The measures were announced in order to “ensure that everyone gets the electricity they need,” Craig Dyke, Head of National Control at National Grid ESO, told BBC Radio on Monday, adding that 26 suppliers had signed up for the scheme.

[1/2] A British government advert offering people help with winter energy bills is seen on the side of a bus in Stockport, Britain, November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Below freezing temperatures have been recorded across much of the UK in recent days with the national weather service, the Met Office, last week issuing severe weather warnings for snow and ice.

National Grid’s Dyke said consumers could make small changes to make money by reducing their energy usage, such as delaying cooking or putting on the washing machine until after 6 p.m.

National Grid said in December that over a million British households had signed up to the scheme, which is one of its strategies to help prevent power cuts.

The announcement about the coal-powered generators did not mean they would definitely be used, it said in a separate statement.

Coal-powered generators were last put on stand-by in December when temperatures dropped and demand for energy rose, but they were not needed on that occasion.

Reporting by William Schomberg and Muvija M in London, and Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru; editing by Tomasz Janowski, Andrew Heavens, Kirsten Donovan

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Business

California offshore wind auction bids top $460 mln on day two

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Dec 7 (Reuters) – The first ever auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California entered its second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping $460 million.

The Biden administration’s sale is a major milestone in the its goal to put turbines along every U.S. coastline and a critical test of developer appetite for investment in floating wind turbines, an emerging technology necessary in locations where the ocean floor is too deep for fixed equipment.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is auctioning five lease areas equal to a combined 373,267 acres (151,056 hectares) off the state’s north and central coasts. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

After 22 rounds of bidding, high bids totaled a combined $462.1 million. Two leases off the central coast had commanded high bids of more than $100 million, with the remaining leases attracting high bids in a range of $62.7 million to $98.8 million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site.

The identities of the bidders are not disclosed during the auction, but 43 companies had been approved to participate.

They include established offshore wind players like Avangrid Inc (AGR.N), Orsted (ORSTED.CO) and Equinor (EQNR.OL), which are all developing projects on the U.S. East Coast, as well as potential new entrants including Swedish floating wind developer Hexicon (HEXI.ST) and Macquarie (MQG.AX) unit Corio.

Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Alexander Smith

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Business

UK economy to shrink in 2023, risks ‘lost decade’: CBI

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LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Britain’s economy is on course to shrink 0.4% next year as inflation remains high and companies put investment on hold, with gloomy implications for longer-term growth, the Confederation of Business Industry forecast on Monday.

“Britain is in stagflation – with rocketing inflation, negative growth, falling productivity and business investment. Firms see potential growth opportunities but … headwinds are causing them to pause investing in 2023,” CBI Director-General Tony Danker said.

The CBI’s forecast marks a sharp downgrade from its last forecast in June, when it predicted growth of 1.0% for 2023, and it does not expect gross domestic product (GDP) to return to its pre-COVID level until mid-2024.

Britain has been hit hard by a surge in natural gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as an incomplete labour market recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and persistently weak investment and productivity.

Unemployment would rise to peak at 5.0% in late 2023 and early 2024, up from 3.6% currently, the CBI said.

British inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October, sharply squeezing consumer demand, and the CBI predicts it will be slow to fall, averaging 6.7% next year and 2.9% in 2024.

The CBI’s GDP forecast is less gloomy than that of the British government’s Office for Budget Responsibility – which last month forecast a 1.4% decline for 2023.

But the CBI forecast is in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which expects Britain to be Europe’s weakest performing economy bar Russia next year.

The CBI forecast business investment at the end of 2024 will be 9% below its pre-pandemic level, and output per worker 2% lower.

To avoid this, the CBI called on the government to make Britain’s post-Brexit work visa system more flexible, end what it sees as an effective ban on constructing onshore wind turbines, and give greater tax incentives for investment.

“We will see a lost decade of growth if action isn’t taken. GDP is a simple multiplier of two factors: people and their productivity. But we don’t have people we need, nor the productivity,” Danker said.

Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Diane Craft

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Business

Elon Musk: focused on getting self-driving Teslas in wide release by year-end

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STAVANGER, Norway, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA.O) chief Elon Musk said on Monday he aimed to get the electric auto maker’s self-driving technology ready by year-end and hopes it could be in wide release in the United States and possibly in Europe, depending on regulatory approval.

Speaking at an energy conference in Norway, Musk said his attention was currently focused on his SpaceX Starship spacecraft and self-driving Tesla electric cars.

“The two technologies I am focused on, trying to ideally get done before the end of the year, are getting our Starship into orbit … and then having Tesla cars to be able to do self-driving.

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“Have self-driving in wide release at least in the U.S., and … potentially in Europe, depending on regulatory approval,” Musk told the audience.

OIL AND GAS NEEDED

Earlier, Musk said the world must continue to extract oil and gas in order to sustain civilisation, while also developing sustainable sources of energy.

“Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilisation will crumble,” Musk told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

Asked if Norway should continue to drill for oil and gas, Musk said: “I think some additional exploration is warranted at this time.”

“One of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy,” he said. “That will take some decades to complete.”

He said offshore wind power generation in the North Sea, combined with stationary battery packs, could become a key source of energy. “It could provide a strong, sustainable energy source in winter,” he said.

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Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche, Jan Harvey and Louise Heavens

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Business

U.S. offshore wind auction attracts record-setting bids

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Feb 23 (Reuters) – The largest ever U.S. sale of offshore wind development rights – for areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey – attracted record-setting bids on Wednesday from companies seeking to be a part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create a booming new domestic industry.

It is the first offshore wind lease sale under Biden, who has made expansion of offshore wind a cornerstone of his strategy to address global warming and decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, all while creating thousands of jobs.

With bidding still underway, the auction was on track to easily top the $405 million U.S. offshore wind auction record set in 2018, according to updates posted on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) web site.

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After 11 rounds, bidding stood at a record-setting $250 million for a single lease 32 miles (51.5 km) off the coast of New Jersey. The government had identified that 114-acre area – the largest offered in the sale – as being capable of producing power for more than 485,000 homes.

The previous record amount paid for a U.S. offshore wind lease was $135.1 million in 2018 for a lease off the coast of Massachusetts.

High bids on each of the other five areas in the auction ranged between $12.6 million and $134.3 million as of Wednesday afternoon.

The auction’s scale marks a major step forward for offshore wind power in the United States, which has lagged European nations in developing the technology. Currently, the United States has just two small offshore wind facilities, off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, along with two additional commercial-scale projects recently approved for development.

BOEM, which has not held an auction for wind leases since 2018, is offering 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares) in shallow waters between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.

The area is 22% smaller than what was initially proposed last summer due to concerns about the developments’ impact to commercial fishing and military interests.

‘ENOUGH WIND TO POWER MILLIONS OF HOMES’

The sale’s 25 approved bidders include entities controlled by Equinor ASA (EQNR.OL), Avangrid Inc (AGR.N), BP Plc and Eletricite de France SA (EDF.PA), according to government documents. Each bidder may only win one lease.

The energy generated from the newly offered areas could one day power nearly 2 million homes, the administration has said.

Last year, the Biden administration set a goal of installing 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030 along the nation’s coastlines. Much of the current development is happening in waters off of Northeastern states.

New York and New Jersey have set targets of building more than 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035, and Wednesday’s lease areas – which lie between 20 and 69 nautical miles off the coast, according to BOEM – could deliver more than a third of that capacity.

“That’s enough wind to power millions of homes,” Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in an interview. “That’s a big deal in a state with about nine million people.”

Not everyone supports offshore wind development. The Biden administration’s ambitions have stoked concerns among commercial fishermen and coastal communities about harm to their livelihoods and property values.

In January, a group of New Jersey residents sued BOEM over its leasing plans for the New York Bight. The group, from the summer colony of Long Beach Island, is concerned about the aesthetic impacts of the turbines and potential lost tourism.

Greg Cudnik, owner of a fishing charter boat business on Long Beach Island, worries about what thousands of wind turbines will do to the ocean habitat.

“For all this that’s taking place and all this that is put in jeopardy, to me, I don’t see the net benefit,” Cudnik said.

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Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Christine Kiernan in Ship Bottom, New Jersey; Editing by Bill Berkrot

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World

Germany shuts three of its last six nuclear plants

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  • Three of Germany’s last six reactors to shut down
  • Final phase-out by the end of 2022
  • Dismantling to cost over $10 billion
  • Anti-nuclear consensus still strong, minister says

BERLIN, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Germany has pulled the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations as it moves towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.

The government decided to speed up the phasing out of nuclear power following Japan’s Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON (EONGn.DE) and RWE (RWEG.DE), shut down late on Friday after three and half decades in operation. read more

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The last three nuclear power plants – Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II – will be turned off by the end of 2022.

Preussen Elektra, which runs the Brokdorf and Grohnde plants, said in a statement on Saturday the two had been shut down shortly before midnight on Friday. RWE said the Gundremmingen C plant also stopped generation on Friday evening.

PreussenElektra CEO Guido Knott thanked staff for their commitment to safety: “We have made a decisive contribution to the secure, climate-friendly and reliable supply of electricity in Germany for decades.”

The phase-out of an energy deemed clean and cheap by some is an irreversible step for Europe’s biggest economy even as it faces ambitious climate targets and rising power prices.

The six nuclear power plants contributed to around 12% of electricity production in Germany in 2021, preliminary figures showed. The share of renewable energy was almost 41%, with coal generating just under 28% and gas around 15%.

Germany aims to make renewables meet 80% of power demand by 2030 by expanding wind and solar power infrastructure.

Japan’s government on Tuesday mapped out a plan for releasing contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, angering neighbouring China and South Korea. read more

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Reporting by Emma Thomasson, Editing by Louise Heavens

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World

China rust-belt province warns of more shortages in energy crisis

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A chimney of a China Energy coal-fired power plant is pictured in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China September 29, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

BEIJING, Oct 11 (Reuters) – The largest provincial economy in China’s northeast rust belt on Monday warned of worsening power shortages despite government efforts to boost coal supply and manage electricity use in a post-pandemic energy crisis hitting multiple countries.

The energy crisis gripping the world’s second largest-economy and top exporter is expected to last through to the end of the year, with analysts and traders forecasting a 12% drop in industrial power consumption in the fourth quarter because coal supply is expected to fall short this winter.

Liaoning province issued its second-highest alert level for power shortages for the fifth time in two weeks on Monday, warning that the shortfall could reach nearly 5 gigawatts (GW).

The biggest economy and largest consumer of power among the three provinces making up China’s rust-belt industrial region, Liaoning has been hit by widespread power cuts since mid-September. A level-two alert indicates a power shortage equivalent to 10-20% of total demand for power.

The rebound in global economic activity as coronavirus restrictions are lifted has exposed shortages of fuels used for power generation in China and other countries, leaving industries and governments scrambling as the northern hemisphere heads into winter. read more

“The biggest power shortage could reach 4.74 gigawatts (GW) on Oct. 11,” said a notice issued by the department responsible for industry in the province.

An order to curb power use had been put in place from 6 a.m. (2200 GMT on Sunday), it said.

The province also issued level-two alerts for each of the last three days of September, when the daily power shortage reached as much as 5.4 GW, leaving hundreds of thousands of households without electricity and forcing industrial plants to suspend production.

The drop in output from power plants followed tightening supply and soaring prices for coal, which is used to generate more than 70% of electricity in the region.

Wind farms have also been idled because of slow wind speeds, a province-backed newspaper reported. Wind power made up 8.2% of Liaoning’s power generation in 2020, National Statistics Bureau data shows.

COAL SHORTAGE

The energy crisis, which has led to fuel shortages and blackouts in some countries, has highlighted the difficulty in cutting the global economy’s dependency on fossil fuels as world leaders seek to revive efforts to tackle climate change at talks next month in Glasgow. read more

China will “strictly control” coal-fired power generation projects and “strictly limit” the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five-Year plan period from 2021-2025 while making a phased reduction in consumption in the next five-year plan, Vice Premier Han Zheng said in a joint statement issued on Monday after environment and climate dialogue between China and the European Union.

China is taking steps to try to alleviate tightness in the domestic coal market by pushing local mines to increase output, ING analysts said in a note to clients on Monday.

Shanxi province and the Inner Mongolia region, two of China’s biggest coal producers, ordered more than 200 of their mines to expand production capacity and prioritise coal supply to power plants in northeastern provinces, including Liaoning. read more

However, about 60 coal mines in China’s largest coal-mining province, Shanxi, have been closed and several railway lines disrupted since Friday after heavy rain caused flooding. The Shanxi government has not disclosed how much production capacity those closed mines represent.

Meanwhile, high coal costs continue to pressure utilities. China’s thermal coal futures rose 8% to hit a daily upper trading limit shortly after trade started on Monday.

More than 70% of China’s coal-fired power plants are loss-making because of high coal costs, Citi analysts said in a note on Friday.

A report by Moody’s Investors Service said: “China’s electricity cuts will add to economic stresses, weighing on GDP growth for 2022. And the risks to GDP forecasts could be larger as disruptions to production and supply chains feed through.”

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s state planner, on Monday said it has been urging power companies to boost coal inventories. It will hold a news briefing on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) on tariffs for coal-fired power.

Last week China said it would allow coal-fired power prices to fluctuate by up to 20% from base levels, instead of 10-15% previously. read more

Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh
Additional reporting by David Stanway
Editing by Tom Hogue, Simon Cameron-Moore and David Goodman

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