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Speaker 2: There's a heat wave, if you haven't noticed, gripping Western
Speaker 2: Europe and we are anticipating more dangerously hot and humid conditions.
Speaker 2: We're breaking records across the continent.
Speaker 1: It's pretty severe.
Speaker 3: I mean we're seeing temperature records falling and you know
Speaker 3: it's not even at its peep yet. This is only
Speaker 3: the second ever red heat worn in for the UK.
Speaker 4: We're seeing training cancelations and delays really across the continent
Speaker 4: here in the UK, France and the Netherlands. It's just
Speaker 4: not built, wasn't hill for these types of temperatures, and
Speaker 4: not these temperatures this.
Speaker 1: Early Western Europe has been baking in a heat wave
Speaker 1: that's pushed temperatures to dangerous levels, triggering extreme heat worn
Speaker 1: from authorities in France, Germany, the UK and elsewhere. The
Speaker 1: scorching weather has driven record demand for cooling as households
Speaker 1: and businesses rely more on air conditioning, but it's also
Speaker 1: added other strains on electricity supplies. Here's why heat waves
Speaker 1: spell trouble for power networks. Our power and renewables reporter
Speaker 1: Aiman Farhat joins us now for more, and then let's
Speaker 1: talk about the demand side first. So in northern Europe,
Speaker 1: relatively few homes have air conditioning, but it is becoming
Speaker 1: more common. How much does demand for power go up
Speaker 1: when the weather gets hotter?
Speaker 3: Hey, right, when you look at Europe, I mean, France
Speaker 3: is kind of the middle ground where when you come
Speaker 3: to the south of France than south of that Spain Italy,
Speaker 3: you do have quite a bit of a conditioning, but
Speaker 3: once you're in northern Europe you're right, which still quite limited.
Speaker 3: That being said, we're looking at France, which is really
Speaker 3: where the heat has been centered in Europe, and powder
Speaker 3: them on in the last few days is about up
Speaker 3: fifteen percent on the evening peaks compared to kind of
Speaker 3: a more normal summer week. I mean, are kind of
Speaker 3: going to do almost crazy levels of talking about forty
Speaker 3: four degrees in France, you know, reaching forty degrees in Paris.
Speaker 3: So that really is what is driving those those peaks
Speaker 3: in demand and that fifteen percent increase.
Speaker 1: So what do high temperatures do then to the power
Speaker 1: grids themselves. How resilient are networks in Europe to these
Speaker 1: kinds of heat waves.
Speaker 3: I mean, when you think about the grid itself, I
Speaker 3: mean the physical infrastructure. You have these wires connecting power
Speaker 3: you know, from your home to generation stations, you know,
Speaker 3: across borders, and when it gets too hot, those power
Speaker 3: lines start to sag, and grid operators have to think
Speaker 3: about that and think about how much power they can
Speaker 3: transport through the lines to kind of limit that happening,
Speaker 3: because that can become dangerous, that cause blackouts. So that's
Speaker 3: kind of one of the major impacts. But even more
Speaker 3: than that when it comes to, for example, on the
Speaker 3: generation side, which it kind of also fits into the grid.
Speaker 3: In France, we have all these nuclear reactors and that
Speaker 3: kind of underpins a lot of Europe's generation, especially in
Speaker 3: the evenings when the sun is not shining or at
Speaker 3: times with low wind. These nuclear reactors really are the
Speaker 3: backbone of Europe's generation. And when it gets too hot,
Speaker 3: the rivers that cool these reactors get too hot, so
Speaker 3: you have to actually turn down or turn off the reactors,
Speaker 3: and that is really what creates some stress on the
Speaker 3: system and on the grid across Europe.
Speaker 1: You mentioned renewables there as well. You think sony weather
Speaker 1: is good for solar power for example, but is this
Speaker 1: actually a good period for renewables generation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, every year we're having kind of record levels of
Speaker 3: solar power, but it always happens more in April and May.
Speaker 3: This is kind of the peak solar period. You'd think
Speaker 3: it would be during the summer, but actually solar panels
Speaker 3: are slightly less efficient at high temperatures, so it's actually
Speaker 3: more around when it's about twenty twenty two degrees that
Speaker 3: they solar powers are at their maximum efficiency. Obviously, we've
Speaker 3: had very sunny weather, so during the midday peaks, so
Speaker 3: between maybe ten to three pm, you have very good
Speaker 3: solar generation. But actually right now in the last kind
Speaker 3: of week, we've also had very very low wind levels.
Speaker 3: We're talking about maybe six month lows across some countries,
Speaker 3: and that means that you know, renewable generation total is
Speaker 3: actually down, and so gas new careactors and sometimes even
Speaker 3: coal have to come in and fill the gap.
Speaker 1: Can the grids cope with a surge in power generation?
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about what led to the major blackout in
Speaker 1: Spain and Portugal last year. Part of that was blamed
Speaker 1: on the unstability that coming from renewables. Can grids actually
Speaker 1: adapt to having this big change and energy mix.
Speaker 3: When it comes to that that issue in Spain and
Speaker 3: in any grid, you know, whether if you have a
Speaker 3: surgeon generation or a dropping generation, that can cause issues
Speaker 3: for the grid stability I mean right now. Actually a
Speaker 3: very interesting dynamic which you haven't discussed, is actually the
Speaker 3: World Cup as well. You know, we're having spikes and
Speaker 3: power demand when people at halftime and at full time
Speaker 3: and everyone gets up, puts their cattle up, opens their fridge,
Speaker 3: and that can cause you know, a very sharp increase
Speaker 3: in a very short period of time, which is exactly
Speaker 3: what renewables also do. You know, you can have a
Speaker 3: very sharp increase or decrease in generation as it's weather driven.
Speaker 3: Grid are definitely becoming more resilient. Spain was a big
Speaker 3: example of where that residency wasn't there, and now European
Speaker 3: countries are definitely investing a lot in the last year
Speaker 3: to make sure that isn't repeated this summer.
Speaker 1: What does all of this mean for prices, because that's
Speaker 1: an important factor too.
Speaker 3: It's really interesting when you look at the power prices.
Speaker 3: You know, we follow it on many different contracts. The
Speaker 3: day ahead is basically the kind of the daily power price,
Speaker 3: and the power price for today actually went in France
Speaker 3: to its highest level is twenty twenty two, so it's
Speaker 3: not even been this high since you know, the peak
Speaker 3: of the energy crisis due to the rush of Ukraine War,
Speaker 3: you know, when gas supplies were limited into Europe. So
Speaker 3: it just shows how this kind of these hottest summers,
Speaker 3: this hot weather, definitely driven in some ways by climate change,
Speaker 3: is creating extreme stress on prices and this doill trickle
Speaker 3: down to businesses, to households. You know, we're already seeing
Speaker 3: that this month so far prices are up compared to
Speaker 3: last year, when the juctory that we should be having
Speaker 3: in Europe is a decrease in prices as renewables increase.
Speaker 3: That's what all governments want, that's what will give economic growth.
Speaker 3: But actually that the heat in some times of the
Speaker 3: year can cause US prices to increase.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're told that we'll need to expect more
Speaker 1: of these kind of heat waves in Europe. What does
Speaker 1: all of this mean for energy providers in the future,
Speaker 1: How will they plan to cope with events like this
Speaker 1: that are expected to become more regular.
Speaker 3: It's difficult because when we talk about these types of
Speaker 3: heat waves and these extreme weather events, they are supposed
Speaker 3: to happen once every five years, ten years. They seem
Speaker 3: to be happening once every year or maybe other year.
Speaker 3: So it's definit becoming more important for you know, energy
Speaker 3: providers to become resilient, whether it be you know, for
Speaker 3: double edf building new ways of cooling their reactors, whether
Speaker 3: it be you know, building up good infrastructure to be
Speaker 3: more resilient to temperature. But right now, I think in
Speaker 3: the kind of short term it just shows the importance
Speaker 3: of just having a kind of a flexible system, different
Speaker 3: type of generation, not relying too much on solar, on wind,
Speaker 3: on nuclear, because at any moment the sun the heat
Speaker 3: can actually affect those quite significantly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, it's very interesting to see how providers are
Speaker 1: going to adapt to these changing patterns in our climate.
Speaker 1: AIM and thank you very much for joining us. AIM
Speaker 1: and Firehat there are Power and Renewables Reporter. For more
Speaker 1: explanations like this from our team of three thousands journalists
Speaker 1: and analysts around the world, go to Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: slash Explainers. I'm Stephen Carroll. This is here's why. I'll
Speaker 1: be back next week with more. Thanks for listening.