Germany Utility Plans to move "beyond being 'tolerated'"

from German utility RWE:

"we believe we can move beyond being ‘tolerated’.”

The story features the themes of capacity payments and market dysfunction, with an added emphasis of maintaining existing assets over investing in developing new assets. 

Exclusive report: RWE sheds old business model, embraces energy transition - Energy Post | Energy Post:

...The main function of this “existing conventional fleet” will be to provide backup capacity. The strategy paper says that “the prospects for RWE’s generation business are driven by the following convictions”.
First, “although we see a huge build-up of a renewable generation infrastructure ( … ) the demand for reliable capacity will not decline significantly any time soon. The system requires roughly 260 GW of reliable capacity in Central-Western Europe in 2013 and will not require much less in 2030.”
“The second conviction, which partly breaks with the targets of the present strategy, is that portfolio churn is not an option any more. We have to live with our assets and make the best of them.”
Last but not least: Currently, backup capacity is needed but not adequately remunerated. This is the result of an ultimate and irreversible distortion of the present market design.

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