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France prepares first NZIA-compliant wind tender
France prepares first NZIA-compliant wind tender
London, 7 October (Argus) — French energy regulator CRE has approved the rules for an onshore wind tender to open in December, the first to exclude foreign-made components in line with Europe's Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA). Under the tender rules, for 1GW of onshore wind, developers cannot source more than 85pc of permanent magnets in their turbines from the dominant provider China. CRE, while in favour of this move to "favour European industry", noted that there is no visibility on the availability of components that comply with the rule. Alongside French rules on the height of turbines, this could raise the price at which the subsidy is attributed, it said. Prices in the 11th round of the tender, the last to be announced, hit a three-year low of €77.08/MWh thanks to a high proportion of cheaper repowering projects , CRE said. Other changes to the 13th round include higher requirements for approval from local government, and a tightening of the rules on holding two support contracts for the same project. By Rhys Talbot Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Brazil pushes time-based tariffs to cut power gap
Brazil pushes time-based tariffs to cut power gap
Sao Paulo, 6 October (Argus) — Brazil's power agency Aneel is seeking to reduce the gap between daytime solar power supply and peak evening demand through more use of time-based pricing mechanisms. Growing solar generation creates a challenge for Brazil's grid as it seeks to better match supply and demand, advisor to Aneel's general director Flavia Lis Pederneiras said at the Smart Grid conference in Sao Paulo on Tuesday. Solar power generation during the day and higher electricity demand at night boosts system prices and require systems with more flexibility to make the national power system more stable, she said. Aneel wants to increase time-based electricity tariffs, which allows low-voltage consumers including residential, rural, industrial and public service consumers to pay different prices depending on the time of day they use electricity. It gives consumers clearer price signals and encourages them to shift consumption to periods of higher solar power generation, it said. Electric vehicles (EVs) could stress the grid if most charging happens during evening peak hours, but they could also become a part of the solution if charging happens during higher solar power generation hours, from 10am-4pm, Perderneiras said. Brazilian consumers bought 62,365 EVs in August , breaking the previous all-time monthly EV sales record for a sixth consecutive month. EV sales slightly more than doubled from the same period last year and were up by 1pc from July. Time-based electricity tariffs can help narrow the gap between solar power supply and demand, but they are not the sole solution. Aneel is looking at several measures to improve Brazil's power system flexibility, including curtailment and the latest power capacity reserve auction, Perderneiras added. Brazil expanded its power generation by 1.97GW in August , with solar accounting for nearly half of the new capacity additions, according to Aneel. By Mariana Funchal Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Q&A: CGES expands Montengrin grid, eyes high RES growth
Q&A: CGES expands Montengrin grid, eyes high RES growth
London, 6 October (Argus) — Montenegrin transmission system operator (TSO) CGES is accelerating the development of key domestic and cross-border grid projects as the number of planned renewable and battery storage projects in the country rises significantly and new operational challenges emerge, the TSO's chairman of the supervisory board Aleksandar Mijuskovic told Argus ahead of the Energy Week Western Balkans conference in Montenegro. Edited highlights follow: How is CGES progressing with key interconnectivity projects? After the recent completion of the key 400kV Lastva–Pljevlja line, CGES is advancing several major projects aimed at strengthening Montenegro's role as a regional transit hub. Regarding the 400kV Pljevlja–Bajina Basta interconnection, part of the Trans-Balkan Corridor, on the Montenegrin side the project consists of approximately 15km from Pljevlja 2 to the Serbian border, together with two new 400kV bays at Pljevlja 2. Following adoption of the spatial plan, CGES has moved to implementation, and is expecting to open the site soon. Construction of the overhead line is expected to start by the end of 2027. However, completion of the whole Pljevlja–Bajina Basta connection will mostly depend on Serbia, for which it is a much larger project. Serbian TSO EMS currently plans to complete section 3 of the Trans-Balkan Corridor in 2028, while section 4, which connects Bajina Basta to Visegrad and Pljevlja, is still to be tendered. EMS expects this tender to be completed by 2029, according to the latest information. On the second Italy–Montenegro interconnection, Italian TSO Terna has obtained regulatory approvals and we hope the project will enter its construction phase soon. The current estimate is that it could be completed in 2030-32. The 220kV corridor from Bosnia and Herzegovina through Montenegro towards Albania is much more advanced. In March 2026, CGES signed a €15mn EBRD financing agreement for reconstruction of the existing Trebinje–Perucica–Podgorica–Vau i Dejes corridor, which will double its capacity to 600MW. The planned implementation deadline is end-2028. CGES is preparing a tender for the main contractor that will be published in the next few weeks. How is Montenegro's renewable buildout progressing in 2026 and what is the state of its connection queue? Are there connection requests for battery energy storage system (Bess) projects too? Renewable development has accelerated significantly, and the total capacity of projects awaiting connection to the transmission grid is now considerably larger than Montenegro's existing power system, making our queue very difficult to manage. CGES has signed 15 connection agreements for approximately 3GW, mainly for solar projects in the west. The ministry has issued technical conditions for projects of nearly 7GW capacity. But not all of these projects are expected to be commissioned soon, as many solar projects are in a difficult situation financially. Wind projects are in a much better situation. The 54MW Gvozd 1 wind farm was commissioned several months ago and the 21MW Gvozd 2 is expected to be completed in the coming months. Several wind projects are also under construction , while solar projects are looking for alternatives including hybrid solutions with Bess. So the connection queue is not a forecast of actual capacity expected to be built. In fact, the size of the queue is becoming one of CGES' main planning challenges. The large number of applications is making subsequent connections increasingly demanding. Therefore, we have discussed a transition from a "first-come, first-served" approach to "first-ready, first-served," which will streamline connection conditions for well-prepared projects. CGES also proposes temporary connection agreements, which allow investors to connect their projects even if the complete infrastructure has not been finished. This helped Gvozd 1 connect to the grid at least six months earlier than if all connection infrastructure had been fully completed. Bess are also becoming key. Several connection requests have been filed by solar project investors and stand-alone project investors, and a few connection studies have been prepared. CGES now considers Bess connection projects as a separate and increasingly relevant category, especially as the total capacity of variable renewable projects awaiting grid connection grows. Considering Montenegro's high installed hydropower capacity, can Bess still play an important role? Our large hydropower plants are technically very flexible and capable of changing their output quickly. However, due to the characteristics of their water inflows and reservoirs, their availability for balancing also depends on hydrological conditions, reservoir management and the market. Keeping hydropower units on line to provide spinning reserve during low-price periods can have a significant opportunity cost, as it may require using valuable, stored water instead of preserving it for higher-price periods. This is where Bess can play a complementary role in the balancing market. During periods when it is not economically attractive for these plants to remain on line or to reserve part of their generation capacity for balancing, batteries be a balancing alternative. This can broaden the pool of balancing service providers and increase competition in the balancing market. This will become increasingly important as Montenegro integrates more solar and wind generation. How is the grid coping with hotter summers and greater volumes of cross-border flows due to the increasing variability from renewables? Summer 2026 showed that we can cope with hotter conditions and greater volumes of variable renewables. There were no disruptions in power supply, no local or regional level incidents. However, it does not mean that there were no operational challenges. Contrary to that, this was probably one of the busiest summers so far. And the challenges will not be smaller in the coming years. Some are addressed by completed investments; others we are tackling through fully operational regional co-operation solutions in line with Acer decisions on capacity calculation regions, and by installing several new transformers. These projects have significantly enhanced the security and reliability of the power system, both in terms of interconnected system operation and the security of supply to consumers. This resulted in no electricity supply interruptions in the coastal region in the past two summer seasons, a significant improvement from previous years. How has the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) affected you and your relationship with traders and their cross-border transactions? The CBAM has clearly influenced market behaviour. At the beginning of 2026, we observed lower demand and significantly lower prices for capacity from Montenegro to Italy. This indicated that traders were taking into account the additional CBAM-related cost when assessing cross-border transactions. During the second and third quarters, the situation improved and monthly auction prices recovered towards historical levels. Still, the CBAM remains an important source of uncertainty for traders, especially regarding the use of default emissions values and the recognition of carbon prices paid in third countries. When it comes to cross-border trading, for CGES the main impacts are primarily related to congestion income and the future market coupling process. This is why we are closely following the ongoing amendments to the CBAM regulation, particularly changes to the methodology for determining default emissions factors, and the possibility of enabling future market coupling through a phased approach to fulfilling the conditions for a CBAM exemption. The Energy Community argued that the CBAM has caused physical flows to diverge from commercial flows on EU borders. Is this an issue for Montenegro? Has it resulted in an increase in network costs? Preliminary comparison of the commercial and physical flows in 2026 with previous years do confirm this observation. It is particularly evident in high-transit regimes. Potentially higher network costs are not the main concern, as these can directly affect network security, which is a much more challenging consequence. Ongoing activities at a broader regional level will hopefully result in a technical solution soon. Otherwise, we are entering an era of completely new and different operational challenges. This is not only a consequence of the CBAM, but also of insufficient co-ordination in the region. Entso-E has recognised this issue, which is currently being addressed by its System Operations Committee. The committee is expected to develop near-term measures to mitigate this problem. By Apostolos Tsarikas & Jessamy Guest Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Virginia set to publish new RGGI rule
Virginia set to publish new RGGI rule
Houston, 5 October (Argus) — The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will soon publish a rule to align the state's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) with the program changes finalized last year. The rule, which DEQ director Mike Rolband signed on 24 September, will be published in the Virginia Register of Regulations on 19 October and will take effect on 1 January 2027. The rule outlines the state's emissions cap plan for the next decade, which will start at about 20.4mn short tons (st) in 2027 and decrease by more than 2.5mn st/yr through 2033. Starting from 2034, the cap will fall by nearly 728,900st/yr, ending at almost 2.2mn st in 2037. The emissions cap plan is similar to the one DEQ proposed in August , though the rate at which the cap falls during 2034-37 is slightly higher than what was previously floated. In addition, the rule establishes two cost-containment reserve (CCR) tiers each holding more than 3.4mn additional allowances, which can be released into the market if an auction price exceeds certain thresholds. The trigger price for each CCR tier start at $19.50/st and $29.25/st in 2027 and will increase by 7pc/yr. The 11 member states hold quarterly auctions where market participants can purchase allowances to satisfy their compliance obligations. Other changes include the removal of the emissions-containment reserve (ECR), which was designed to withhold allowances if auction prices drop below a certain level, the elimination of offsets starting from 2027 and the alignment of the minimum reserve price at the same level as what would have been the ECR trigger price. The minimum reserve price will start at $9/st and increase by 7pc/yr. The new rule aligns Virginia with changes finalized in July 2025 by the rest of the 10 member states in the power plant CO2 cap-and-trade program. The finalization of the new rule will cement the state's budgets for the coming decade, resolving a major source of uncertainty for market participants over the future scarcity of allowances — a factor that has loomed over the market since Virginia in March first announced its intent to rejoin RGGI in July. RGGI allowance prices have climbed to historic highs both in the last two auctions as well as in the secondary market since Virginia's announcement. The last auction, held on 9 September, cleared at $37.65/st and sold more than 28.5mn allowances while secondary market prices have held at more than twice the CCR trigger price for 2026 since April, when Virginia finalized its return to RGGI . In addition, the secondary market has been volatile, particularly in recent weeks, likely because of fluctuating trends in the northeast US power markets. RGGI prices fell to a four-month low on 23 September before reaching a five-week high a week later, according to Argus assessments. But since then, allowances have again been on a downward trend in tandem with power prices in the region. December 2026 and prompt-month contracts were last assessed at $39.83/st and $39.54/st, respectively, on 2 October. By Ida Balakrishna Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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