To meet the challenge of climate change, countries are ramping up plans to accelerate the expansion of low-carbon technologies and to decarbonize their power systems. But the sun doesn’t always shine, nor are winds always sufficiently gusty. To ensure the continued, reliable operation of renewable power sources, there is a need for flexibility in both energy markets and power systems. From 12 to 16 July, more than 44 decision-makers and experts from Europe and Central Asia joined a virtual IAEA meeting to better understand the short to medium term impacts of low-carbon strategies on national and regional energy markets.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To meet these ambitious targets, the IAEA assists countries charting out their energy strategies by providing methodologies, energy modelling tools and associated training. As part of this energy planning support, the IAEA hosted the five-day meeting to explore the operational challenges future power systems and grids could face as energy systems are decarbonized, and how adjustments in regional market designs and instruments may support investments in low-carbon technologies, such as nuclear power.
“In the last two decades, renewable energy technologies have seen a sharp increase in investments,” said Christoph Henrich, IAEA Programme Management Officer. “But uncertainty and variability pose challenges for the transition towards greener power systems. Nuclear power could be one of the solutions to those challenges.”
Whereas recent IAEA meetings focused on long-term strategies around energy demand and supply pathways, this July 2021 meeting explored how power systems are operated and how markets function today. “We considered what needs to be done to ensure we are on track to translate long-term strategies into action on the ground,” Manuel Welsch, IAEA Energy Planner and Economist.
