Due to slim profit margins, proper imbalance management is crucial to the financial success of small hydro power plants.  These plants must increase the accuracy of their generation forecast and reduce the quantity of generated power that is exposed to imbalance settlement prices. As described in the previous articles, harmonization of intraday markets and increasing interconnection capacity to continental Europe will not only expose Norway to...

Changes in the Norwegian Power Market In part 1 of this series, HYDROGRID identified a number of European power market trends, e.g. Build-out of renewables, especially wind powerDecrease of average spot market pricesIncrease in volatility in the power markets (including balancing energy prices) We showed how these trends are now slowly coming to the Nordic markets and are affecting the revenue potential for small hydro producers, and argued...

The Energy Transition - A Threat to Small Hydro Producers? The energy sector has gone through massive changes in the last years: Rapid advancements in wind and solar technology coupled with renewable subsidiary programs have led to large scale investment in renewable generation across Europe. Once built, these wind and solar plants are able to generate power at almost zero marginal cost - as a result of...