Webinar on Flexibilisation of Coal Fired Power Plants

Increasing shares of variable renewables will result in new requirements for the operation of coal fired power plants. Now is the best time to prepare for the future and to acquire new skills.

Faster ramp rates and stable minimum load operation enable coal fired power plants to adapt to the new energy mix. The changing energy mix goes along with new market schemes in the power sector. It is foreseen that more and more plants will participate in the day ahead market and the upcoming intraday market. Flexible operation also allows partial ramp down during midday times with high solar shares and ramp up during peak demand at night. Even though it seems that this situation might not be a big issue for coal in India today, it actually already is in some Indian states. Countries like Germany, US, UK, Denmark and many others have already moved into this direction. Long-term PPAs for coal have been phased out, short term markets have been established: Thus, there is no other choice than to become flexible or to shut down.

What is the future perspective on the need for flexible coal generation? Which experiences have been gained in Europe so far? How much flexibility can be achieved with good operational practice and maybe even without further investment? These questions were in the focus of the webinar "Flexibilisation of coal fired power plants" on the 30th April 2020 organized by VGB PowerTech e.V. together with IGEF-SO.

The presentation of Dr. Weise on International best practices on flexibilization of coal fired power plants – when flexibility became more important than efficiency can be downloaded here.
The presentation of Mr. A.K. Sinha on On the ground experience with flexible operation in India – Results of minimum load test runs and recommendations for the plant operator of the future can be downloaded here.

You can find the complete recording of the webinar here.

For further information take a look at our Flexibility Toolbox or follow the link to VGB https://flexibility.vgb.org/.

 

 

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