| Work Detail |
German scientists have identified 18 types of power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the renewable energy market. Their research is intended to support policymakers, scientists and investors in carrying out their own PPA analyses and choices. A group of researchers in Germany has carried out a comprehensive overview of the structures and characteristics of existing power purchase agreements (PPAs) in an effort to help policymakers, scientists and investors make their own PPA analyses and choices. “Given the sometimes complex nature of PPAs, the lack of an appropriate classification complicates research and adoption by industry practitioners,” the academics say. “This study therefore provides novel insights by identifying, describing and classifying different PPA structures to provide an overview that allows for better guidance and comparability.” The research group identified several PPA structures based on their main contractual feature and noted that these structures are not mutually exclusive. The main parameters were generation technologies, energy attribute certificates (EACs), asset age and contract duration, counterparty type, multiplicity of parties, direction of delivery, asset location, third-party balancing, physicality of delivery, pricing structures, delivery schemes, use of storage, subsidies and insurance. The academics also created a “morphological box” that included the 18 PPA typologies they identified. “While creating a structural view of the known parameters of renewable PPA contracts, the morphological box also provides a method for designing differentiated PPA contracts while respecting the constraints and interdependencies between the different contractual parameters,” the team stresses, noting that the box contains three more parameters: project, counterparties and contract. “In addition, it can be used to estimate the amount of risk assumed by the different parties to the contract.” Furthermore, the morphological box creates interdependencies between the contractual parameters of the PPAs. “As the field of PPAs is constantly evolving and there is no standardized definition for most of the available parameters so far, this analysis cannot fully guarantee a complete set of existing interdependencies,” the researchers specified. “However, all known interdependencies are characterized from the available data.” The results of the research are also intended to support the standardisation of contracts, they concluded. The review was presented in the study « Review and morphological analysis of renewable power purchasing agreement types» published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews . The group consisted of scientists from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the FernUniversität Hagen. |
