ReachX Breakfast - Opportunities in Energy & Power Infrastructure

ReachX is please to invite you to our upcoming breakfast with our partner Economic Consulting Associates Ltd, a specialised infrastructure economic consultancy, who will discuss the following topics 

- Private sector investment opportunities in energy networks (interconnectors),
- Investment opportunities and risks in ssLNG and virtual pipelines and the
- The integration of power storage with RES

Date:                  Thursday 6th February at 8:30am 
 
Location:           East India Club
                           16 St James's Square
                           London SW1Y 4LH

Please click on the "book" button on the right to register and confirm your attendance

Private sector investment opportunities in energy networks (interconnectors)

Electricity network development is usually the responsibility of licensed and price-controlled network operators. Sometimes large customers (or generators) will be tasked with building their own connections to the network but these connections are then operated by the network owner who may adopt the connection and will often not even pay for the adopted assets (with the customer getting the benefit of access through the asset but with no direct return on the investment). The exception is interconnectors joining two national control systems. These can often be built on a merchant basis with the value of the asset being what users are prepared to pay to access cheap electricity in one country and to sell it in a more expensive country. Interconnectors can often exploit different types of generating systems by, for example, allowing a user to buy peaking generation in a country with flexible generation and swapping it with baseload-type generation from another country. The ability of an interconnector investment to extract value will depend on the market regimes either side of a border will depend on the market regimes involved but a clear assessment of long-term economic rent potential is a pre-requisite to the investment decision.

ssLNG and virtual pipelines – investment opportunities and risks

Small scale Liquefied Natural Gas (ssLNG) is increasingly becoming a viable technical and commercial alternative to larger and more capital intensive liquefaction technologies. The modular ssLNG applications with shorter construction periods can provide a more competitive fuel source than traditional petroleum products. with increased usage of LNG as a primary fuel - observed mainly in Europe and the US over the past years – ssLNG applications are becoming more attractive for investors. LNG as a primary energy fuel is typically transported via truck or railway to offtake points where small scale and modular regasification facilities and storage units can be used to convert it into a gaseous fuel. The most common use of ssLNG is for power generation, transport, bunkering for ships and for heat generation in industrial processes. The technology is of particular interest in regions where potential demand for gas is dispersed and total volumes are too low to warrant the development of a gas transmission system and/or regasification terminal. By displacing expensive and more carbon intensive liquid petroleum products, ssLNg in combination with virtual pipelines offer interesting opportunities for investors.

Power storage – the integration with RES

Electricity storage devices have seen a rapid ramp-up in deployment internationally as battery prices have declined and the need to manage integration of variable renewable power grows. Dependent on application, storage devices typically have significantly different revenue profiles to generation plants. They are focused on capturing the value of providing energy, capacity or reactive power services at the time when demand for such services is greatest. This often involves the stacking of revenue streams across more than one service and means that the ability to capture value is dependent on the local market design, price formulation and restrictions or drivers within the general regulatory framework. A structured and clear assessment framework can help rapidly identify the likely applications and attractiveness of new forms of power storage in a given market.