Coal Report Methodology

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Weekly Coal Burn Report Methodology (EU)

The Genscape Weekly European Coal Report relies primarily on direct observations of power flows to arrive at a plant-level estimate of coal and lignite consumption.

Genscape monitors power production and cross border flows at over 100 critical points in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Genscape model, developed in cooperation with a leading German energy economics and environmental policy institute, relies on published and unpublished consumption values by plant, federal state and country, and on engineering data for the monitored plants to set coal burn rates at various levels of capacity utilization. The national data, which is published more frequently, is combined with the engineering data to produce a more timely picture of plant consumption levels, which are published only annually.

Genscape calculates an hourly consumption of coal or lignite by monitored plant taking into account whether the plant is ramping up or down, and the capacity utilization level at which it is operating. The operation phase of the plant (ramp up or ramp down) is deduced from a weighted average of the previous hours. The capacity utilization is calculated using published nameplate capacities by plant.