Europe’s power networks need to embrace flexibility and whole systems approaches on much larger scales if they are to be capable of accommodating the levels of renewable power necessary to hit 2030 targets.
As the proliferation of grid-scale renewables accelerates, capacity on national grids is diminishing just as quickly, leading to harder to find and ever-costlier connection agreements. Liam Stoker assesses some of the alternative options grid operators are exploring to extortionate grid upgrades.
The UK’s electricity system operator (ESO) National Grid turned down embedded generation using a new management service last weekend, but did not resort to emergency disconnection powers granted at short notice.
Enel has announced a multi-billion-euro upgrade to its renewables investment programme as the utility plans to derive 60% of its power generation from renewables by 2022.
