This briefing paper is a knowledge product based on the ‘Thermal Power Plants Flexibility’ Workshop, which was organized by IESR together with MEMR of Indonesia. Speakers from Agora Energiewende, a think-tank based in Germany, and from International Energy Agency (IEA) shared their knowledge and experience during this workshop, which we summarized and reproduced as a comprehensive material.

This briefing paper provides a broad analysis on possible flexibility measures for thermal power plants, focusing on coal power plants. The first part of the paper gives an overview of how the power systems undergo changes due to more renewables integration. The second and third parts look specifically at flexibility options and how Germany has applied these options. The fourth part describes in detail current technical characteristics related to the flexibility of thermal power plants, including some retrofit measures to increase the flexibility of coal power plants. All these options and measures are then wrapped by the last part which discusses the policy options required to enhance flexibility.