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Germany’d record refutes the myth that “baseload power is essential”

Energy Post 12th March 2018, The experience of the German Energiewende shows that increasing amounts ofrenewable energy on the power system, while at the same time reducing
inflexible baseload generation, does not harm reliability write Michael
Hogan, Camille Kadoch, Carl Linvill and Megan O’Reilly of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP).

American policymakers who are still skeptical can look across the Atlantic, to Germany, for a concrete example of a successful transition away from traditional baseload, the authors note.

Numerous studies sponsored by utilities, system operators, the national
labs, and others show that a large share of variable renewable energy
production can be integrated while keeping the lights on, without any
valuable role for traditional baseload.

No study, not even by the US Department of Energy, which examined this issue in an August 2017 Staff Report on Electricity Markets and Reliability, has found evidence that baseload generation is required for reliability. Most studies have found that reliability and least cost are best served by reducing the share of inflexible baseload generation.

Germany is meeting nearly a fifth of its electricity requirements with VREs while retiring inflexible thermal generation, the nation has not experienced reliability problems on either the distribution or bulk electric system. If anything, government data show that the reliability of the German system has increased.  http://energypost.eu/how-german-energiewendes-renewables-integration-points-the-way/

March 19, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, Germany