Chart of the week
Our complimentary Charts of the week analyse the latest news and updates in the energy industry. The articles offer a visual way of understanding complex issues and are complemented by our expert’s analysis.
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Categories
Latest Charts of the week
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E-mobility and low carbon
GB energy demand is predicted to rise 123% due to electrification
It is safe to say that most of Great Britain’s (GB) heat and transport systems are from high emission sources that are incompatible with net zero. Decarbonising how we heat our homes and move from A to B is crucial to meeting our emissions targets. However, the biggest challenge associated...
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Home supply and services
Green certificate prices continue to rise amid BEIS proposals
On 16 August, BEIS opened the consultation ‘Designing a framework for transparency of carbon content in energy products’. This call for evidence invites views on whether the use of Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates for annualised renewable energy matching inhibits transparency for consumers, and how the REGO framework could...
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E-mobility and low carbon
Postcode winners and losers: charging infrastructure provision
Last month the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on its market study into electric vehicle (EV) charging in the UK. It raised concerns about charge point deployment at motorways, remote locations and on-street locations, stating that access to suitable charging can be a “postcode lottery” and...
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Home supply and services
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail – domestic switching rate dips
The Energy Retail Market Strategy for the 2020s places consumer engagement as a key focus in the short term through to the late 2020s. To increase competition and engagement, current proposals include the introduction of an opt-in switching scheme and trialling opt-out switching to ‘nudge’ consumers and suppliers towards more...
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Energy storage and flexibility
Grid works hard for the money: an annual look back at BSUoS
This weeks Chart of the Week takes a look at the costs incurred from balancing the electricity system over the last 12 months. The cost of all the actions and day-to-day operation of the electricity system are recovered through Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) charges. This changes in each...
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Business supply and services
SME’s interest in renewables driven by corporates
Despite the challenging year for businesses, we recorded growing interest in renewable electricity amongst businesses and Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs) according to our TPI Satisfaction Survey for 2020. This has been a focus for Industrial and Commercial's (I&Cs) over the last two years driven by corporate social responsibility goals, particularly...
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E-mobility and low carbon
The best is yet to come: Electric Vehicles surpass 2021 diesel sales
The Transport Decarbonisation Plan published yesterday sets out new targets to cut emissions from the sea, roads and railways, joining an earlier commitment to phase out polluting cars and vans by 2035. In assessing the progress so far, we take a look at data released last week from the Society of Motor...
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Home supply and services
900,000 domestic customers impacted by SoLR over last two years
Across 2020 and 2019, 887,000 domestic customers were supplied by a company which exited the market via the Supplier of Last Resort mechanism (SoLR). On average, this is around 1.7% of the market per year. In 2018, 551,000 domestic customers were supplied by a company which entered the Supplier of...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | 3 2 1… fight: VRE and price cannibalisation in NEM
In the last decade, the rapid decline in deployment cost of variable renewable energy (VRE) generation capacity has given renewables an advantage over fossil fuels for new builds as highlighted in ‘Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020’ report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). In the report, Australia has...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | VRE pays more as PFR helps reduce coal FCAS costs
In our previous ‘Chart of the week’ in November 2020, we reviewed the increasing percentage of causer pays cost that solar generators bear due to their generation profiles and how this results in them paying significantly more of the causer pays cost as a ratio of the generation they provide. More than...
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Commercial and market outlook
Australian Chart of the week | Two roller coaster rides for the price of one? Preliminary vs final MLFs
In recent years, movements in marginal loss factors (MLFs) have received significant attention in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Many renewable projects in remote areas have experienced material MLF reductions as more supply connects nearby. For example, the MLF for Broken Hill Solar Farm saw a whopping 50 ppt drop...
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Low carbon generation
The outlook for private wire business models
Interest in private wire arrangements has grown in recent years, with the benefits of network and policy cost avoidance becoming a key incentive for generators to look at this development approach. In this Chart of the Week, we look at the expected evolution of cost avoidance over the next five...
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Low carbon generation
Price trends for Renewables Gas Guarantees of Origins
In May 2021 we published the findings from our latest quarterly Green Certificates Survey. The survey is designed to provide greater market transparency for Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO), Continental Guarantees of Origin (GoOs) and Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin (RGGO) certificate markets. It provides aggregated views on certificate...
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Regulation and policy
Taking charge: the MHHS implementation levy
On 10 June the BSC Panel approved the Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS) Implementation Charge for 2021-22. The new charge, introduced under modification P413 Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement Programme Manager, will cover Elexon’s programme management costs for MHHS implementation. It will be levied on suppliers on a monthly basis, based...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | Peak raise regulation FCAS volumes drop by 72MWs
It is helpful to understand Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) as FCAS price forecasts are needed to estimate generator and customer costs, as well as possible revenues for new and existing ancillary service providers. AEMO procures regulation FCAS to balance frequency during normal operation. From May 2019, AEMO has procured...
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Home supply and services
Chart of the week | Default tariff cap set to rise by at least £100 for coming winter
The default tariff price cap for a typical dual fuel direct debit customer looks set to increase by over £100 for the Winter 2021-22 period, according to an initial assessment from Cornwall Insight’s bi-annual tariff cap predictor. The latest forecast for the cap indicates that it will increase to around...
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Regulation and policy
Australian Chart of the week | EnergyConnect: transformational highway or white elephant?
Last week, the AER delivered their final regulatory approval for Project EnergyConnect (PEC) with total costs of $2.28b. This signifies the end of a process that began back in 2016 when the initial project specification report was released. There was some uncertainty around the viability of the project. However, a $295 million...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | If I should stay, I’ll only be in your way: coal and the transition
Events in Queensland on 25 May 2021 tested the resilience of the Queensland demand/supply balance with 3GW of coal generation suddenly coming offline due to a loss of generation at the Callide power station. According to AEMO’s preliminary report – released on 1 June 2021 – on the event, the outage also...
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Home supply and services
Chart of the week | Green hair, green branches, green skin, green tariffs?
In this 'Chart of the week', we look at how prevalent green supply has become, unpick some of the drivers behind this, and look at the challenges now facing consumers, suppliers and policy makers confronted by a sea of green. Over recent years, we estimate the percentage of households with...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | A view of captured prices by technology in New South Wales
This Chart of the week examines the historical captured prices of selected technologies within NSW for the last 10 years. Figure 1 shows the historical rolling monthly average of captured prices of various technologies within New South Wales against the monthly generation of variable renewable resources including small scale rooftop....
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Commercial and market outlook
Chart of the week | Green recovery in Italy?
Issue 229 of ‘Chart of the week’ showcases Italian prime minister Mario Draghi’s economic recovery plan which was presented to the country’s parliament. The appointment of Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, as prime minister on 13 February has provided the country with a unique opportunity to...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | Is the market putting the brakes on distributed solar exports?
In most states, electricity retailers determine and set their own rooftop solar feed-in tariffs (FITS). A major driver is the wholesale energy prices, which continue to decline midday. For more information, please refer to our previous Chart of the Week issue 76. As the solar weighted wholesale energy prices reduce or become...
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Commercial and market outlook
Chart of the week | The price is right? UK ETS market opens
In issue 225 of the 'Chart of the week', we considered the potential scenarios for UK carbon prices as we transitioned to the new UK Emissions Trading System (ETS), noting the role of market tools, policy, and recent EU ETS pricing trends in determining UK prices. Following the launch of the first...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | “I feel the earth move under my feet”: from high to lows
We have seen a dramatic shift in FCAS price fortunes over the past year or so, going from all-time highs of ~$229.3mn in Q1 of 2020 (due to the separation event) to only ~$40.1mn in Q1 2021. Since 2019 we have also seen regulation raise prices decline from robust prices...
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E-mobility and low carbon
Chart of the week | The only way is up: Electric Vehicle registrations
Data released last week from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd (SMMT) showed plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales unusually higher than Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) registrations in April. PHEVs took a 6.8% share of all new car registrations compared to 6.5% for BEVs. In this 'Chart of the week',...
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Commercial and market outlook
Chart of the week | Getting the balance right – a new approach to policy costs?
A new report from research consultancy Public First has argued that the government should move the costs of energy policy from being heavily on electricity bills onto government expenditure. In this 'Chart of the week', we look at the four models for rebalancing put forward in the report. Options for...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it just transitions
In April, the NSW government opened consultations on “specific urgent and mechanical policy details” on regulations needed to implement its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap released late last year. The Roadmap aims to unlock 12GW of new renewable energy capacity from selected Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) with an additional 2GW in storage...
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Low carbon generation
Chart of the week | Higher or lower? Transitioning to the UK ETS
Carbon prices, especially the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), have experienced considerable volatility over the last year, influenced first by COVID-19, which saw prices crash, and more recently by expectations of increased EU climate ambitions, driving prices to record highs. In this Chart of the Week, we consider the potential...
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Low carbon generation
Australian Chart of the week | Resizing the bumper car (market price) floor?
In the last two years the NEM 5-min prices fall to the floor more often than hit the cap as some regions struggle to deal with mid-day excess supply. This has raised questions about whether the price floor, which has stayed at -$1000/MWh for years, will be changed by the...
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Low carbon generation
Chart of the week | To 6 GW… and beyond! Offshore wind in the CfD scheme
The role of Contracts for Difference (CfD) generators in the electricity market continues to expand and Allocation Round 4 (AR4) to be held later in 2021 will expand this role further. By the end of 2020, installed generating capacity supported by the CfD scheme already totalled 5.2GW, providing Great Britain...
