At the PowerGen2013 conference in Vienna, Wärtsilä Power Plants has received the Best Paper Award in the category for “Strategies for the European power industry”. The award is recognition for Wärtsilä’s dedicated research and development work in the increasingly important field of flexible power generation. Wärtsilä’s study, which is entitled “Future Market Designs for Reliable Electricity Systems in Europe”, identifies the value of flexibility in power systems with large shares of intermittent renewable energy sources. Wärtsilä’s paper proposes a new electricity market model for Europe to reveal the value of flexibility and to boost investments in flexibility. It also shows how savings can be made in two large power systems, in the UK and in California. The paper was written by Melle Kruisdijk, Market Development Director, and Matti Rautkivi, General Manager at Wärtsilä Power Plants.
The study by Wärtsilä addresses the important topic of changing conditions and fundaments in the European energy markets. The amount of intermittent power generation is on the rise as a result of the increasing penetration of variable renewable generation into the system. This leads to greater demand for flexibility in power generation to balance the fluctuation of variable generation from wind and solar. The paper proposes new market designs to reward and incentivize investment in the flexible capacity in order to provide the required flexibility in a most economic way.
In addition, Wärtsilä’s paper presents two recent studies on the value of flexibility in the UK and California, conducted by Redpoint Energy together with Imperial College London and DNV KEMA, respectively.
“The case studies show that investment in new flexible capacity can save European consumers several billion euros annually. This is the value of system flexibility, or the cost of system inflexibility. In the future, the flexibility of power system should no longer be an invisible and low cost side product of power generation, taken care of by the system operator, but a key factor in the power system design and optimization,” the Wärtsilä paper says.
Read the paper here: Future Market Design
For further information, please contact:
Mr Melle Kruisdijk
Market Development Director
Wärtsilä Power Plants
melle.kruisdijk@wartsila.com
Tel: +31 6 100 3 2823
Mr Matti Rautkivi
General Manager, Liaison Office
Wärtsilä Power Plants
matti.rautkivi@wartsila.com
Tel: +358 40 480 3743
Wärtsilä in brief
Wärtsilä is a global leader in complete lifecycle power solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasising technological innovation and total efficiency, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. In 2012, Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 4.7 billion with approximately 18,900 employees. The company has operations in nearly 170 locations in 70 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland.
www.wartsila.com
Wärtsilä Power Plants in brief
Wärtsilä Power Plants is a major supplier of flexible base load power plants operating on various liquid and gaseous fuels. Wärtsilä Power Plants also provides unique, dynamic solutions for grid stability, reserve, peaking, load following and intermittent power generation. The Wärtsilä portfolio of power plants covers the capacity range from 1 to more than 600 MWs. Wärtsilä has delivered 4,600 power plants to 170 countries, with a total output over 52 GW (52,000 MW).
Additionally, Wärtsilä offers multi-fuel solutions that are used by the Mining, Manufacturing and Oil & Gas Industry for reliable power generation. The comprehensive global services range from project development and financing support, to tailored lifetime operation and maintenance services. www.wartsila.com/energy
Smart Power Generation
Smart Power Generation is a new concept which enables an existing power system to operate at its maximum efficiency by most effectively absorbing current and future system load variations, thus providing dramatic savings.
Wärtsilä is the global leader in Smart Power Generation. Wärtsilä’s combustion engine technology and power plant solutions have been developed to provide a unique combination of valuable features that enable new horizons for future sustainable, reliable and affordable national power systems.
www.smartpowergeneration.com
