Is Portugal still in time for repairs? It is worth it? – Observer
The case of Pego is simpler because the dismantling process has not yet started and the workers who know this technology are still in the company or undergoing training for professional requalification in the area of renewable energies. Even so, it would take three months to reactivate the plant, either with coal or with biomass, which is part of the proposal that Tejo Energia’s largest shareholder submitted to the Pego reconversion tender. But this tender should give the victory to Endesa, whose project does not provide for thermal capacity. A return to leave and when you leave it will be even more a scenario of coal conditioning. Especially because the Spanish electric company has committed itself to anticipating production from renewable sources, which earned it a bonus in the ranking that placed its proposal in first place.
The conclusion is that it is possible to reactivate coal, but the later the decision takes, the more difficult and more expensive. On the other hand, there seems to be no real political will.
The sources heard by the policy by the Observer evaluate these approaches and before the Ministry of the Environment that the objective is to publicly present the position that the objective was not publicly considered at the outset (and by decision) without a prior assessment of its feasibility and usefulness in this context. of energy crisis.
On the other hand, it is not yet known who will be the energy strongman in the Executive and whether this hypersensitive portfolio will go hand in hand with the environment or return to the Economy where, depending on the nominee, a more open perspective on the next coal is plausible. Another unknown, which should be clarified at the end of the week, is the extraordinary measures that the European Council will approve to deal with the rise in the price of natural gas and the knock-on effect that this movement is having on the electricity market, in particular the Iberian.
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The fuel supply system as more security lights up in the energy sector, but one thing that no one can question: long exposed to supply sources, the more technologies and available capacity is greater than the fuel supply.
The political (or business) discussion of anticipating the end of coal was already on the agenda before the war in Ukraine, because of the combined effect of rising prices for natural gas and electricity and the drought in Portugal and following an article by opinion published by the former Director General of Energy, Mário Guedes, which establishes a relationship between the end of coal and the exploitation of large dams.
The fact that the Portuguese electrical system is very dependent on renewable energy, the lack of a fundamental resource such as water — which is still a single source renewable by emission (which can be turned on and off, in this turbine) — is mandatory in theory to Appeal to thermal plants to compensate. As Portugal only has available as combined cycle plants or systems, it is more exposed in terms of costs to the natural gas valuation cycle. Guedes, for this purpose, has been leaking more and more from the country of Spain, and has also stopped the second-dry water draining or the large second-dry water leaks from January to the large draining January and February of a year of abnormality of some months.
Former Director General of Energy blames the end of coal for hydroelectric production that emptied dams
Mário Guedes’ opinion provoked a challenge from the Ministry of the Environment, which attacked the idea that Portugal was spending millions by importing more electricity from Spain at very high prices. Bearing in mind that coal is also important, and that it brings CO2 emission costs, the current Director-General of Energy opposes the arguments that call into question the decision to discard coal from the Portuguese energy mix. João admits that “the biggest advantage of having a load is that it is easier to supply a network to respond that Bernardo offers more facilities in terms of supply and capacity, in the easier to find the load diagram. This situation is this situation, being compensated, at this time of energy, while the other renewables are unable to respond.”
The ghost of coal in the emptying of dams
It is even a demand for security of a lot of supply in stress scenarios that combine risk factors on the temperature side (a sudden increase in demand that is usually associated with abnormal phenomena of cold, very hot) and supply. On the supply side we are going through some — war, high prices and drought. For now, there is a lack of natural resources, unless the gas is discarded in a context of more resources, but there is no against Russia. And in a scenario, which would be more problematic for Portugal, the interconnection with Spain would only be inaccessible or would be more insufficient in the face of needs.
2022 was already the year of greatest risk in electricity supply (even without drought)
The supply report released last year identified a risk of identification in the electrical system, this due to the effect of the potential for greater security of the most important power plants at the entrance of the delay pump in the operation of the great Tâmega. The Iberdrola dam, largely as a result of a difficult and contested process of building the connection to the grid, will only be able to fully function from next year.
In terms of price, coal would not make much difference, the various sources in the sector contacted by the Observer. On the one hand, and as reminded by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, Russia is also a major supplier of coal, whose raw materials quoted internationally have similarly different in the context of comparisons against the country. On the other hand, the central offer on the Portuguese side would not have a dimension in the Iberian context to influence the price of the Iberian market.
The lack of coal-fired generation capacity is the main reason given for the supply of electricity through power plants. Both Sines and Pego have been beneficiaries, for decades, of acquisition contracts that guaranteed remuneration, regardless of energy and sale price. In Sines, the CMEC maintenance contract (contract maintenance cost) ended in November, the energy purchase contract reached the end of last year, which coincided with the end of production.
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In two possibilities they could continue to operate in a market regime and risky to the risk of costs and risking to operate very few in high peaks of demand.
Hence, the business decision was, in the case of EDP, even anticipated the unfinished politician, even the power to discard the role that had to be able at this moment. At the European level, in which you will guarantee the cost of CO2 permits for coal production But above all at the national level. The Government anticipated the political goal of ending coal, in addition to eliminating a gradual independence of oil derived from coal to generate electricity, the Government anticipated the political goal of ending coal, which was identified with a takeover of the second government imposed by Antonio Costa.
EDP says it cannot close Sines thermoelectric plant before 2030
And if in mid-2019 EDP still hesitates about the timetable to close the greatest need to stabilize the electricity grid in the south of the country (an argument that refers to security of supply), the discourse changed a year later.
EDP anticipated the closure of coal plants in the Iberian Peninsula
Even so, it was necessary to obtain authorization from the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology to proceed with the decommissioning of the plant, which was only given at the end of 2020. In the case of Pego, a conflict between the main shareholders over the future of the plant led to the Government to proceed with a tender for the conversion of the coal unit. In this context, production was defended by converting Tejo Energia from coal to biomass — a strategy defended by the largest shareholder, Trust Energy, but contested by Endesa.
In addition to the DG’s security systems for the electronic energy system and tax incentives, the State intervenes through supply management. And Portugal could have done what Spain did.
In March 2022, the Spanish plant As Pontes resumed production after a technical stoppage for a few months. Endesa, which operates the Galician coal plant, has already asked to close a unit in 2019, but so far has not received the green light from the Spanish authorities, citing supply reasons. Endesa said the closure could take place in July, but there is still no official decision from the government and after that it still cannot come to an end.
According to the newspaper, Voos de la Galicia, two cargoes of coal with 247,000 tonnes are serving that arrive at the port of Ferrol. The reactivation will mobilize 100 more contracted workers1 until May 3rd. The resumption of electricity production comes against the background of the war in Ukraine and the rise in gas prices. The most recent factor had already led to a return of coal in Spain in the past 21 operations that were electric, which in Portugal were led to produce with this technology in 20.
Electric companies that deactivated coal in Portugal continue to produce in Spain (because of the price and not only)
Despite the fact that production is very residual as a whole, coal is the most used in Spain. February, this type of generation even grew by 74% compared to the same period last year, accounting for 1,280 GW hour.
In responses given to the Observer in December last year, regarding the operation at the As Pedras plant, Endesa explains: “We are obliged by law to make offers for all available plants that are on the market and to be available for the system” until get authorization to hang up. The electric already green light to deactivate some units at the end received, the last of the 2021 in Carboneras, Andalusia.