Status: 08/01/2022 07:51 a.m
Not so much natural gas should be used to generate electricity. As a result, hard coal-fired power plants have recently been allowed to temporarily go back on the grid. A plant in Lower Saxony is apparently the beginning.
A first hard coal-fired power plant from the reserve is to be started up again soon. It is the Mehrum power plant in Hohenhameln in Lower Saxony (Peine district) between Hanover and Braunschweig, as the Federal Network Agency in Bonn announced, according to the dpa news agency. So far it is the only “market return” of a power plant that has been reported to the Federal Network Agency.
Since July 14, an ordinance has allowed hard coal-fired power plants from the so-called grid reserve to be put back into operation in order to save natural gas. According to the Federal Network Agency, natural gas accounted for 11.2 percent of power generation in June in June. The federal government’s ordinance allows the sale of electricity from reserve power plants that are fired with hard coal or oil until the end of April 2023.
Lindner calls for the end of electricity generation with gas
A controversy arose within the federal government over the weekend about generating electricity from gas. Finance Minister Christian Lindner called for this to be stopped. “We have to work to ensure that the gas crisis is not accompanied by an electricity crisis,” said the FDP chairman of the “Bild am Sonntag”. “Therefore, gas can no longer be used to produce electricity, as is still happening.” In the direction of the Federal Minister of Economics, Lindner said: “Robert Habeck would have the legal authority to prevent that.”
A spokesman for Habeck pointed out that a complete abandonment of gas in the electricity sector would lead to the electricity crisis and blackouts. “There are system-relevant gas-fired power plants that have to be supplied with gas. If they don’t get gas, serious disruptions occur. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of the electricity system, which you have to know in order to ensure security of supply.” However, where gas can be replaced in power generation, it should be replaced – and work has been going on at full speed for a long time.
In addition to the already valid ordinance for hard coal and oil power plants, an ordinance for restarting brown coal power plants that have already been shut down is also being prepared for the beginning of October. In addition, there is a gas saving regulation that is intended to prevent the unnecessary generation of electricity from natural gas. “The ordinance is currently being prepared and will come into force when it becomes apparent that even more gas needs to be saved in power generation,” the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on July 21.
Electricity for more than half a million households
The Mehrum power plant has been in reserve since the beginning of December 2021, as the commercial manager of the operating company, Kathrin Voelkner, told the dpa. “We have declared the return to the electricity market. We assume that we will return to the grid in the short term.” The power plant has a net output of 690 megawatts. In 2018, it generated so much electricity that theoretically more than half a million model households could be supplied with electricity.
The power plant belongs to the Czech energy group EPH. The “Braunschweiger Zeitung” had previously reported on the planned return of Mehrum to the electricity market. Starting up again for several months is economically interesting for power plant operators because wholesale electricity prices are currently high. At the same time, there is sufficient hard coal on the world market. The measure is intended to force natural gas out of the electricity market.
More power plants before returning
The Essen-based energy company Steag also wants to sell more electricity again. Company spokesman Markus Hennes said they have “firm intentions” to return to the market with 2,300 megawatts of generation capacity. The Düsseldorf-based energy company Uniper is also examining the return of its reserve systems with a total output of more than 2000 megawatts to the market. But no decision has been made yet, said spokesman Oliver Roeder.
The Karlsruhe energy group EnBW does not want to bring its five reserve power plants back to the market because they can no longer run continuously for reasons of age. Irrespective of the EKBG special regulations, the company now wants to keep a coal block in Karlsruhe running at least until the end of winter 2023/24 against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and current developments on the gas market. EnBW originally wanted to register this unit for decommissioning in the summer of 2022 as part of the phase-out of coal.