Biogas plants don’t make use of their flexibility despite premium payments

Most German biogas plants capable of producing power according to demand are not making use of this flexibility because the spread between base and peak prices at the wholesale market is not large enough, the German government said. The response came in a reply to an enquiry launched by the liberal FDP party. Overcapacities in Germany’s power market are likely to blame, the government said. The FDP wrote that although 2.64 gigawatt of biogas plants were receiving a flexibility premium payment to prevent them from producing power during times of high input from solar and wind installations, there was little evidence of these plants being operated flexibly. The government said that 56.6 million euros in flexibility premiums were paid in 2016, adding it did not see any evidence for abuse of the system. There is no requirement for biogas operators to prove the flexibility provided over a year, but plants have to be certified to receive the flexibility payment.

Find the whole government reply to the FDP enquiry in German here.

Read a CLEW dossier on bioenergy and the energy transition here.