It is gradually becoming a game for the few market of RES in our country, as significant know-how or verticalization is required for future investments to be profitable.
The entry of energy storage is now game-changing and requires careful decisions, planning, and day-to-day choices on the part of RES market participants.
In practice, they have to take into account many parameters for the operation of their projects and their participation in the market, since we are talking about photovoltaic or wind farms with or without a battery, which do not receive a subsidy, but make a living based on the current price of electricity.
For example, a company is required to calculate the output of its project based on meteorological conditions, make a careful bid, take into account the day-ahead price for the hours the park will produce and compare with the situation in the balancing market.
Understandably, the “thorn” are the hours with negative prices, which are even estimated to intensify in the future even more. During those hours, producers are essentially required to pay for the energy they produce. By extension, the more they drop below zero, the worse things get. The phenomenon was particularly felt this year, where we saw prices of up to -15 euros in the last months.
According to what was presented yesterday by the president of the Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers (SPEF), Stelios Loumakis, the models show that from now on the negative prices will systematically reach much lower than -5 euros per megawatt hour during lunch hours.
This will mainly be the result of further penetration of photovoltaics, at levels above 1,000 MW per year.
Thus, the figure “duck” which the daily wholesale price variation has today, will evolve into “bathtub“, that is, it will reach steeper dips in the midday hours.
This implies a reduction in revenue for commercial projects, which will have to seek recovery in the balancing market, either through the addition of “behind the meter” battery.
However, in the case of energy storage, Mr. Loumakis estimates that it no longer makes sense to implement projects with the ability to store only one hour. In contrast, four-hour systems make investment sense, as they ensure a good return over time for those who have the money to pay the high initial capital cost up front.