Capacity Market

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Clarity on Capacity Market renewable ratings, but gap in government policy remains

    On 7 January, National Grid ESO published its consultation on the new de-rating factor methodology to be used for renewables participating in the Capacity Market (CM). The document forms a key part of the five-year review of the CM, for which a government call for evidence was published in August 2018.   In previous...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from this week’s Energy Spectrum | Issue 649

    There is scant evidence that dividend payments are crowding out long-term investment in either the regulated or competitive utilities market, while regulators have been lax in policing capital structures of the regulated network companies. In our Energy Perspective piece this week Cornwall Insight Associate Peter Atherton rebuts the argument that...

  • Regulation and policy

    Can Capacity Market costs be recovered via a ‘mirroring’ process in the Balancing and Settlement Code?

    Elexon confirmed on Monday (10 December) that Issue 76 Using the BSC to support Suppliers and the Capacity Market Arrangements has been formed and the first meeting will take place next Monday (17 December). The outcomes of this process have the potential to enable suppliers to collect payments from their customers for...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    European judicial ruling leads to Capacity Market “standstill period”, but replacement auction likely

    A decision on a legal challenge confirmed earlier today (15 November) has resulted in BEIS immediately suspending the Capacity Market (CM). This means cessation to payments to existing CM agreement holders and no CM auctions for future agreements early next year. The ruling is the result of a legal challenge...

  • Low carbon generation

    Cornwall Insight: evaluating drivers of low-carbon investment in a subsidy free world event

    On 17 October 2018 Cornwall Insight hosted a successful and well attended event where the future of support for renewable power generation, against the backdrop of the significant gap between current deployment levels and what must be delivered to meet decarbonisation goals, was discussed. Cornwall Insight experts discussed how although...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Re-wiring – interconnectors to face increased policy scrutiny

    This week Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group, reignited the debate on the role of interconnectors within the Capacity Market (CM) and whether their treatment fairly assesses how they contribute to system security. In an interview with The Guardian on 20 May, Gardiner stated that increasing levels of interconnection would do little...

  • Low carbon generation

    Are you gonna go my way? | SEMC consults on changes to T-4 capacity auction

    On 14 May the SEM Committee (SEMC) published a consultation on the Capacity Renumeration Mechanism (CRM) focusing on interim arrangements, updating auction design and specific parameters for the first T-4 auction for capacity year 2022-23. It is an important document for potential bidders into the March 2019 auction as, if...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    A pragmatic review of battery business cases

    As we await the full results of the latest T-4 Capacity Market, which has delivered the lowest clearing price to date for this type of auction, we have been reflecting on the possible business cases for large-scale battery storage. I was speaking on this very topic at the Energy Storage...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    What the T-1 auction does and doesn’t tell us about the upcoming T-4 auction

    The T-1 Capacity Market (CM) auction cleared on Thursday 1 February 2018 in round 14 at £6/kW. 5.78GW of capacity won an agreement for delivery year 2018-19 at an estimated cost for the consumer of £34mn. This is the second one-year ahead auction that has cleared lower than expectations; what does this...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview

    Energy Perspective This week’s Energy Perspective explores BEIS’s latest Energy and Emissions Projections (EEP) published in January 2018, uncovering what the forecasts can tell us about the shifting official view of the energy systems of the future. We focus on the changes since the last EEP’s publication. We highlight how...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Irish Capacity Market raises constraining questions

    The new Irish Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) T-1 auction was held on the 15th of December. In this week's blog, we examine the results that were published by Eirgrid and SONI on the 26th January. The auction cleared at 38,104.88 £/MW or 41,800.00€/MW with 100 Capacity Market Units submitting an...

  • Low carbon generation

    Capacity Remuneration Mechanism in Ireland

    Energy Spectrum Ireland comment On 20 December 2017 EirGrid and SONI published the provisional Capacity Auction results for the 2018-19 Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) T-1 auction, held on the 15th December 2017. Subject to approval the Regulatory Authorities, the final results at a Capacity Market Unit level will be published...