Economic analysis of companies acting as RES Aggregators in the European electricity market

MEng Thesis: Study and analysis of the technical documents and financial results of the energy companies that act as RES Aggregators in the European electricity market for years 2015 and 2016.

RES Aggregators, Electricity Energy Markets, Renewable Energy, financial data

The investigation was carried out in collaboration with my colleague Aristotle Alexiou under the supervision of the Prof. Dr. Pantelis Biskas for the MEng final thesis in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Purpose of Thesis

The purpose of this thesis was to study and analyze the technical documents and financial results of the energy companies that act as RES Aggregators in the European electricity market for years 2015 and 2016, and to analyze their financial performance in terms of gross margin.

In a changing electricity market landscape, where the share of intermittent renewable energy in the energy mix is increasing, system flexibility becomes crucial. As part of the solution, the aggregation of renewable energy can significantly accelerate the integration of intermittent electricity sources and decrease the reliance on renewable energy support schemes. Aggregators of generation are therefore expected to have an increasingly important role to play in the future.

The purpose of this project is to study and analyze the technical and financial documents of the companies that are active in the European electricity market as RES Aggregators. This analysis is based on the published technical and financial data of each company for the years 2015 and 2016.

Structure of the thesis

The first chapter is concerned with the role and the importance of the RES Aggregators in the electricity energy market and the models of such business activity which have been identified in Europe. Furthermore, it refers to the two current remuneration schemes for the energy generated and originated from Renewable Energy Systems. Finally, it refers to the recent Greek Law 4414/2016, concerning the remuneration scheme of RES units in Greece and it is based on the European Commission guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and energy 2014-2020, which are mandatory and essential for all national European markets, including the Greek market.

The second chapter introduces the process that was used to analyze the companies and their financial data, followed by a brief presentation of each company. Afterwards, the data which are about the installed capacity, the power generation, the sales of energy and the financial status of each company, are presented. In case where the data were sufficient enough the aforementioned fields have been analyzed per country, per technology and segment of activity of each company.

Companies under investigation

Among the companies under research was E.ON., ENGIE, EDF, EDPR, DANSKE Commodities, AXPO, FALCK Renewables, ACCIONA Energy, GEN-I,AYEN Enerji, FORTUM, NEAS Energy, Good Energy, INNOGY, EnBW and CENTRICA.

In chapter three are presented aggregated charts with the financial data of the companies, the installed capacity and the sales for the years 2015 and 2016. Also, the earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization are analyzed in €/MWh for the various sectors of each company activities.

Results and Presentation

Finally, chapter four is dedicated to the presentation of aggregate charts with the results and the comparison methods that were followed. The comparison methods are about the earnings per MWh, as well as the influence of the assets on the depreciation of each company. Eventually, based on these results we commented, and we came up to the conclusion which is related to the business activity of each company.