VGB POWERTECH 11 (2019)

A journey through 100 years VGB | VGB POWERTECH 4 (2006)
EUR/MWh
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
— reducing costs,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Country
Gouvernment/public funds
— improving the reliability/availability and
flexibility of equipment,
— developing products for approaching
clients.
Responsibility is a societal issue:
Corresponding R&D efforts are focused on
— security of supply,
— energy efficiency,
— respect for the environment.
On top of that, R&D has also to care for
building competences, for example in the
domain of new materials, new simulation
methods, etc.
From this analysis, it can be concluded that
R&D is a key factor in achieving all of these
commitments and that congruent efforts must
be delivered to make it efficient (appropriate
selection of topics) and effective (get useful results
in an acceptable time frame and budget).
However, in spite of the crucial nature of
R&D, the general tendency within the Electricity
Industry is to decrease R&D budgets.
ESI expenditures
Figure 2. Ratio of total R&D expenditure and gross electricity available for the inland (Eurostat data).
Strategy
-
policy
Manufactures
Selection
and
design
Construction
Co-operative R & D
Commissioning
linking
to the grid
Operation
maintenance
Competitive R & D
Figure 3. Co-operative and competitive R&D along the life cycle of equipments.
Refurbishment
dismantling
Electricity industry
Today: Main R&D Features from
EURELECTRIC Enquiry
An enquiry into R&D practices was carried
out in 2004 by the EURELECTRIC WG
R&D (based on eleven European countries).
Several key features were highlighted:
— The typical R&D expenditure amounts to
0.1 to 0.4 % of the turnover of electricity
companies. This is far away from the 3 %
R&D in EURELECTRIC´s View
recommended by the European Commission.
The ratio of total R&D expenditure
per country and gross electricity available
for domestic consumption (according
to Eurostat data) is given in Figu
r e 2 . It is obvious that the situation
varies from one country to another, from
0.1 EUR/MWh to 1.25 EUR/MWh. This
figure also shows the great variability of
funding by government/public authorities
(from 0 to 80 % of the total expenditure).
The mechanisms for public funding are
also variable, from a levy on the electricity
bill, EU or national funding, or tax reduction.
— The enquiry highlighted common trends
for R&D:
– short-term, profit oriented,
– decreasing budgets,
– tendency to less co-operation, induced
by competition,
– move towards reliance on manufacturer:
the electricity companies no longer develop
equipment. They intervene mainly
as end user for “first of a kind” application.
— Preferential R&D topics are given in
Table 1.
The trend is obviously to devote primary efforts
to the improvement of the existing assets
and to cope with local regulations,
whereas the development of technologies for
the future and the global climatic issues draw
much less interest.
To be pointed out: the customer approach appears
as one of the top priorities along with
improvement in the quality of supply and development
of energy-related products and
services.
Tomorrow: Needs for R&D
Stimulated by the imminent effect of the
Seventh Framework Program (FP7) on R&D,
the EURELECTRIC R&D group intensively
reflected on the R&D needs. It was generally
agreed that Co-operative R&D (grouping
several electricity companies and manufacturers),
more particularly for R&D devoted to
Table 1. Preferential R&D topics for electricity industry (from the answers of 11 European
countries to a Eurelectric inquiry).
Generation – Improvement/extrapolation of traditional technologies ✭✭✭
– Renewable/waste ✭
– Small size generation ✭
Grid – Transmission: congestion/wind intermittency ✭✭
– Distribution/DG integration ✭
Environment – Cope with regulations ✭✭✭
Customer
– Climatic issues/green certificates ✭✭
– Quality of supply
– Energy-related products services
✭✭✭
Energy of the future – hydrogen/ ... ✭
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