Impacts of the energy transition on European thermal power plants: a plant-level data analytics approach

By applying plant-level data analytics on a dataset compiled from the central European electricity market and environmental monitoring platforms, the diverse impacts of the energy transition on Europe's large fossil-fired thermal power plants are evaluated. Drawing from existing data integration initiatives, such as the PyPSA open power system data project or the LIFE COASE project, an attribute- and geolocation-based mapping algorithm was applied to link the object identifiers of electricity market and environmental reporting data. Consistency checks leveraging technical parameters were used to harmonize aggregation levels between electricity generation and environmental data. From the analytical database covering 2016–2024, a set of annual performance and energy efficiency indicators were extracted to identify trends in utilization, cycling, fuel use and carbon emissions data based on the site-specific data of 397 electricity generation units. The results of the empirical analysis underline that thermal power plants must adapt to a highly volatile operational and market environment characterized by heightened cycling and ramping requirements and a more frequent need for part-load operation.