Electrification of the transportation sector provides an opportunity for states to save citizens money on fuel, improve the local economy, address national security concerns, improve public health and combat climate change. Some of these attributes have more urgency than ever, such as the need for local jobs and improved public health. But experience and studies…

As India looks to “build back better” from the Covid crisis, the country would benefit economically, environmentally and socially by investing in clean technologies. In late 2019, the Indian government announced a $1.4trn National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) to jump-start economic growth. This plan includes a high-profile target for the addition of 75GW of thermal power…

随着中国政府提出的低碳、零碳观念的深入，电力行业首当其冲需要加速扩大清洁电力的渗透率。在各地区探索电力市场设计，逐步完善电力交易规则的新形势下，如何让以光伏发电，风能发电为代表的可再生能源以及新兴的储能资源参与市场是业界关心的话题。 我们前几篇政策短文就电力区域市场建设，区域市场之间的协调进行了讨论，在这一篇和下一篇短文中，我们会基于国际经验分别介绍可再生能源和储能参与电力市场的途径和步骤。 光伏发电和风能发电参与电力市场的三种模式 在之前的文章中，我们提出区域RTO是提供低成本灵活性的良好途径，从而更好地应对波动性可再生能源出力的不确定性。可再生能源在不同时间尺度更好地参与电力市场有利于电力系统稳定高效运行，支持低成本零碳转型。在美国RTO/ISO地区，可再生能源在过去的十多年一直积极参与电力市场，为形成风能和太阳能发电的“参与模式”积累了宝贵的经验。美国可再生能源主要参与三类市场竞争：远期市场（中长期市场）、电能量市场、辅助服务市场。 一、远期市场（中长期市场） 在美国，可再生能源参与中长期市场主要有三种方法：1）传统购售电合同，2）“虚拟” (synthetic) 购售电合同，3）纯商业模式 (merchant) 1） 传统购售电合同（Power Purchase Agreement） 这是最常见的可再生能源双边合同形式，由可再生能源发电商和电力公司或者负荷服务实体签署，合同规定了固定价格，年购电量，以及交付节点（用于分配节点价格风险）。典型PPA中购电方（配电公司、售电公司, 或者其他负荷服务实体）有足够的信誉担保，可以与可再生能源发电商签署15-25年的合同。在一些PPA合同情况下，购电方按合同规定享有在特定节点上一定量的可再生能源发电的所有权，因此，由购电方同时作为买家和卖家在电力现货批发市场中竞标，根据波动的节点价格结算。或者，一些PPA为差价合同，发电商和购电商各自参与电力现货批发市场。 2） 虚拟购售电合同 (Synthetic PPA) 这种购售电合同类似于传统PPA，而在交付电量、交付地点和其他要求方面更为宽松。合同的购买方主要是非电力公司（例如，大型终端用户），他们希望通过这种合同来平抑价格风险，同时也有助于满足企业可再生能源目标。相应的可再生能源证书（RECs）可以在自愿市场上出售给需要满足可再生能源配额制的负荷服务实体。 3） 纯商业模式（Merchant Model） 可再生能源发电商没有购售电合同，但可以通过金融机构(例如，银行)签订金融合同，来规避波动的批发市场价格带来的风险，以便于在项目初期获得融资，而金融机构期待从浮动的市场价格和支付给可再生能源的固定价格之间的差价获利。因为没有长期购售电合同，这种商业模式具有一定的风险，一般需要复杂而富有创意的方法来规避风险。但是，相比购售电合同模式，可再生能源发电商可能在电力市场上获得更高的收益。 图一显示出美国风电装机容量按不同远期市场类型所占的百分比，受可再生能源配额制的影响，传统PPA历史上一直占有主导地位，直到最近几年，随着可再生能源逐渐成为低成本资源，新的远期市场参与形式（例如纯商业化模式和虚拟购售电合同）才开始出现并不断增长，而且内容条款也针对不同的需求表现得更个性化。 图 1. 美国风电装机容量按传统PPA和商业化模式所占的百分比 图片来源：Jay Bartlett. Reducing Risk in Merchant Wind and Solar Projects through Financial Hedges. RFF working paper 19-06. February 2019, page 15. https://media.rff.org/documents/WP_19-06_Bartlett.pdf . Licensed under Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

Simple terms can provide a useful framework and help us understand complex things. Raising children, for example, is a highly involved, lengthy and expensive undertaking, but can be reduced to a couple of words: You want your kids to grow up to be strong and kind. Utility regulation is no different, even utility regulation in…

Ensuring the “public good” has been a central regulatory goal since the US Supreme Court decided Munn v. Illinois in 1876, a case in which the court determined that grain elevators — because of their key role in the ability of farmers to get their goods to market — were affected with the “public interest.”…

Efficiency First policy needs to be effectively applied across the EU in order to meet decarbonisation goals. As is the case in many countries in Europe, households in Great Britain can benefit from public subsidies if they install renewable heating systems. This is not surprising given that heating our buildings results in about 20% of…

Hydrogen has an important role to play in the clean energy transition, but there are better options for decarbonising heating in our homes. The expression ‘to sell someone a pup’ comes from an old confidence trick, where a bag purportedly containing a piglet would be sold, only for the new owner to discover that it…

Cuando varias centrales térmicas cierran simultáneamente, aproximadamente 4’6 GW el 30 de junio de 2020, sería de esperar algún comentario sobre la preocupación en torno a los cortes de energía. No así en España: el reciente cierre de la mitad de las centrales de carbón aún existentes no ha sorprendido a casi nadie, y con…

When a bunch of thermal power plants shut down simultaneously, around 4.6 GW on 30 June 2020, one would normally expect to hear concerns about emerging blackouts. But not in Spain. The recent closure of half of the remaining coal fleet has hardly raised an eyebrow, and rightly so. The country is suffering from an…

Two keen observers of the power sector, Jigar Shah and Cheryl LaFleur, have noted that the responses to the rotating power outages in California on August 14 and 15 became a Rorschach test of individual preexisting biases. Before many facts were known, a favorite villain was chosen and a conclusion drawn: too much solar, not…