Heatwaves and record-low water levels threaten European energy crisis | DW News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Well, Europe's heat waves are no longer
2. 0:02just threatening lives. They're
3. 0:04threatening to shut down the power
4. 0:06supply.
5. 0:12Romania's military is blowing up rock
6. 0:15formations in the Danube in an attempt
7. 0:17to redirect more water towards the
8. 0:19country's Cernavodă nuclear power plant.
9. 0:22After months of drought and extreme
10. 0:24heat, the river is running so low that
11. 0:27one reactor has already been shut down.
12. 0:29A second could follow.
13. 0:33>> The forces that we have mobilized here
14. 0:36will work shoulder to shoulder
15. 0:38to achieve this submerged threshold on
16. 0:40the Bala arm.
17. 0:44With the hope that by Tuesday
18. 0:46we will have achieved this goal
19. 0:48and have the expected effect.
20. 0:51An increase in the level on the Old
21. 0:53Danube
22. 0:54and further to the Cernavodă nuclear
23. 0:57power plant.
24. 1:00>> In Hungary, the Danube has fallen to its
25. 1:01lowest level on record, leaving the
26. 1:04country's main nuclear power plant at
27. 1:06Paks close to a complete shutdown. The
28. 1:09plant normally provides almost half of
29. 1:11Hungary's electricity, but without
30. 1:13enough river water to cool its reactors,
31. 1:15it is now producing only a fraction of
32. 1:18its usual power. The government has
33. 1:20asked factories and households to cut
34. 1:22consumption, particularly during the
35. 1:24evening peak. Electric freight trains
36. 1:26are also being restricted to save power.
37. 1:30Serbia is facing similar pressures as
38. 1:33falling river levels reduce hydropower
39. 1:35and nuclear generation just as another
40. 1:38heatwave pushes demand for air
41. 1:40conditioning higher. And with little
42. 1:42rain in the forecast, governments across
43. 1:44Central and Eastern Europe are now
44. 1:46trying to prevent a shortage from
45. 1:47becoming a full-scale energy crisis.
46. 1:53Well, I'm joined now by Chris Rosslow.
47. 1:54He's a senior energy analyst for Europe
48. 1:57at Ember. That's an independent energy
49. 1:59think tank. He uses electricity data and
50. 2:01energy modeling to track Europe's
51. 2:03transition from fossil fuels. And his
52. 2:06latest analysis found that solar
53. 2:08supplied a record quarter of the
54. 2:10European Union's electricity in June.
55. 2:12Chris, it's good to have you with us.
56. 2:14Let me just ask you how serious is the
57. 2:17immediate risk of electricity shortages
58. 2:20across Central and Eastern Europe?
59. 2:24>> I think so far this summer, it's
60. 2:26obviously been an unprecedented summer
61. 2:27for heat waves. The European system has
62. 2:29held up relatively well. Obviously,
63. 2:32we're now
64. 2:33at the end of a very prolonged period of
65. 2:35heat and we're seeing an unprecedented
66. 2:36situation in terms of the nuclear power
67. 2:39reactors in Romania and Hungary being
68. 2:41being closed down.
69. 2:43So, I think indeed we are entering quite
70. 2:45a serious moment in the in the summer
71. 2:47after a long summer of extreme heat.
72. 2:49>> When nuclear and hydropower output falls
73. 2:52simultaneously,
74. 2:54how much flexibility does I guess the
75. 2:56regional electricity system have to
76. 2:58replace that lost generation?
77. 3:04>> I think
78. 3:05the the interconnectedness of Europe is
79. 3:08is one of its key strengths when it
80. 3:10comes to energy. So, that these links
81. 3:12between countries are really important
82. 3:14source of resilience at all times of
83. 3:16year, but especially
84. 3:18at times of year like this where we have
85. 3:20certain power sources in certain regions
86. 3:22experiencing trouble.
87. 3:25I think it's worth saying it's not just
88. 3:27nuclear and hydropower that kind of
89. 3:29experience difficulty in extreme heat.
90. 3:32But basically, it's only
91. 3:34I think it's fair to say only solar
92. 3:36power performs relatively well in these
93. 3:38conditions. And that that for us just
94. 3:40underlined the importance of having a
95. 3:42diversified mix of energy sources.
96. 3:45>> Let me ask you about Hungary's Paks
97. 3:48plant. I mean, it normally provides
98. 3:50almost half of the country's
99. 3:51electricity. How difficult is it to
100. 3:54compensate when a source that important
101. 3:56suddenly loses most of its output? I
102. 3:59mean, can you count on
103. 4:02other sources such as solar to to
104. 4:04compensate?
105. 4:08>> I think Hungary will be relying on
106. 4:11imports more than more than usual with
107. 4:13the absence of this of its nuclear power
108. 4:15plants.
109. 4:17Also, I've seen the government is is
110. 4:20taking the very sensible step to ask its
111. 4:23power consumers to consume a bit less,
112. 4:24especially over the that tight evening
113. 4:26period where we see the power market
114. 4:28being typically the tightest at times
115. 4:30like this.
116. 4:32So, yeah, it will have to draw on on
117. 4:34everything everything it can including
118. 4:36interconnection
119. 4:38and ramping up other sources to to get
120. 4:39through this period.
121. 4:41>> You know, this is happening and it's the
122. 4:43beginning of August. We've we've still
123. 4:44got, you know, quite a bit of summer
124. 4:46left.
125. 4:47This is happening during a heatwave when
126. 4:49demand for air conditioning is rising.
127. 4:51How much additional strain does that
128. 4:53place on the grid?
129. 4:58>> So, heatwaves actually impact the grid I
130. 5:00would say in in in three main ways. The
131. 5:02first one as you mentioned is this
132. 5:04higher than expected power demand from
133. 5:06conditioning and fans etc.
134. 5:08The second one is the grids themselves
135. 5:10actually have thermal limits and when
136. 5:12the temperature is high, we get closer
137. 5:14to those thermal limits which can cause
138. 5:15problems.
139. 5:16And the third main one is that almost
140. 5:19every source of power generation
141. 5:21struggles in in extreme temperatures
142. 5:23with the possible exception of
143. 5:26of solar which performs relatively well.
144. 5:28So, yeah, the grid faces multiple
145. 5:30challenges at times like this for sure.
146. 5:32>> And governments are asking households
147. 5:34and industry to reduce consumption. Are
148. 5:37these precautionary measures or
149. 5:40are they a sign that the system is
150. 5:42already close to its limits?
151. 5:47>> I think there are several signs that the
152. 5:48system uh is close to its limits in
153. 5:51parts of Europe. We see the main main
154. 5:53sign being being high prices. We've seen
155. 5:56extreme price spikes in the previous
156. 5:58heat waves this summer and we're seeing
157. 5:59them again
158. 6:01in in the latest heat wave especially in
159. 6:03central and eastern Europe. So, this is
160. 6:05the signs are definitely there. I think
161. 6:10the the demand shifting is a big
162. 6:12unknown. So, it could definitely have a
163. 6:14meaningful impact on the system.
164. 6:17I think
165. 6:19we're still in fairly early days of of
166. 6:21experimenting with just how much demand
167. 6:24realistically can be shifted away from
168. 6:26periods of peak consumption, but it it
169. 6:27would certainly help enormously to to
170. 6:30avoid even as extreme prices and in the
171. 6:32worst case avoid
172. 6:34blackout.
173. 6:35>> Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that Hungary
174. 6:37will be importing a lot more energy now.
175. 6:40How important are cross-border
176. 6:42electricity imports in preventing
177. 6:44blackouts and what happens when you've
178. 6:46got several neighboring countries
179. 6:49needing additional power all at the same
180. 6:51time?
181. 6:52>> Mhm.
182. 6:54Well, luckily in the case of in the case
183. 6:56of Hungary, Hungary is one of the most
184. 6:58interconnected countries in Europe
185. 7:00relative to its own demand.
186. 7:03Interconnections are really important
187. 7:04source of of resilience for power
188. 7:06systems at all times of year. They've
189. 7:09prevented more than one blackouts
190. 7:12in the past in the past few years in
191. 7:13Europe. You mentioned this the issue of
192. 7:17of sometimes it's not as much help as it
193. 7:19could be because neighboring countries
194. 7:21may be experiencing similar similar
195. 7:23effects, but the kind of more regional
196. 7:25scale they're very very important
197. 7:28because not every country is always
198. 7:30impacted by by
199. 7:32by extreme heat, you know, exactly
200. 7:33simultaneously. Also, the way that the
201. 7:36weather systems work in Europe, it can
202. 7:38be
203. 7:39maybe windy,
204. 7:41you know, 100 km away but not windy in a
205. 7:44certain country so
206. 7:46these these these interconnections they
207. 7:47help between neighboring countries also
208. 7:49they help at regional level to to
209. 7:51balance the European system so so
210. 7:52they're really vital and we certainly
211. 7:54need more of them.
212. 7:55>> What role could battery storage and
213. 7:59other forms of flexible generation play
214. 8:01during an emergency like we're seeing?
215. 8:07>> So I think there's a there's a highly um
216. 8:10complementary set of technologies here
217. 8:12so I would say
218. 8:14solar air conditioning and battery
219. 8:16storage are highly complementary trio of
220. 8:19technologies and the these heat waves
221. 8:21really really highlight that so during
222. 8:23the day of course right now we're
223. 8:24getting a lot of generation from solar
224. 8:27and a lot of demand for air conditioning
225. 8:29so there's a very high overlap there in
226. 8:31terms of that demand and that that
227. 8:33supply.
228. 8:34The problems for power systems tend to
229. 8:35come in the evenings where the sun goes
230. 8:37down but the demand for cooling is still
231. 8:39there and this is exactly when more
232. 8:42batteries on the system could could come
233. 8:43in cover those few hours in the evening
234. 8:45where the system gets really tight
235. 8:48we're not yet at the scale of battery
236. 8:49storage in Europe where we're seeing
237. 8:51that that happen but certainly that's
238. 8:53the theory
239. 8:54and and this battery investment is is
240. 8:56coming into Europe now
241. 8:58at increasing rate.
242. 9:00>> This crisis Chris does it expose an over
243. 9:03reliance on large nuclear and
244. 9:05hydroelectric plants in parts of central
245. 9:08and eastern Europe?
246. 9:13>> I wouldn't say it exposes an over
247. 9:15reliance on on any single technology as
248. 9:19I was saying before I think what it
249. 9:20really underlines is the importance of
250. 9:21having
251. 9:23a diversified mix and it reminds us
252. 9:25again and we already knew this that that
253. 9:28the European system now needs more
254. 9:30flexibility from different sources so
255. 9:33that could be battery storage that could
256. 9:34be more interconnection that could be
257. 9:37demand demand shifting like we're seeing
258. 9:39in the the request for in Hungary. So, I
259. 9:42think the more flexibility for me is the
260. 9:44is is the main takeaway to ensure
261. 9:46resilience in the future and for future
262. 9:48heat waves.
263. 9:50>> All right, Chris Rosslow at Ember. Good
264. 9:52to have you on the program, Chris. We
265. 9:53appreciate your analysis tonight. Thank
266. 9:55you.