Berlin, Dusseldorf Just six months ago, Germany was in the middle of phasing out coal. Now the dirty electricity producers are returning to the grid, if only for a limited period of time.
From October, a total of twelve coal-fired power plants with an output of up to almost seven gigawatts will provide additional electricity for the German grid. They are intended to defuse the tense situation on the electricity market. For hard coal-fired power plants, the comeback will apply until the end of March 2024 at the latest. For lignite, the return to the market will initially be limited to June 30, 2023.
“All power plants that can generate electricity must be connected to the grid and remain connected until Germany has found a way to compensate for the output of these power plants via other energy sources,” said Torsten Kramer, head of the East German lignite group Leag, the Handelsblatt. The Cottbus-based company now wants to reactivate two lignite blocks.
Because Germany has to save as much gas as possible in view of the lack of natural gas supplies from Russia, the old coal-fired power plants in particular should help to significantly reduce the share of natural gas in electricity generation. The less gas needed to produce electricity, the more gas can be used where there is little or no alternative.
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Last year, 15 percent of the electricity consumed in Germany was produced in gas-fired power plants. The share of gas in power generation has fallen somewhat in recent months. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, it was still 11.7 percent in the first half of the year. At the same time, coal contributed over 31 percent to electricity generation. From October, this proportion is likely to increase again significantly.
France’s ailing nuclear reactors remain a problem
And that is also necessary: France, one of Germany’s most important electricity partners, has massive supply problems. Because a large part of the nuclear power plants in the neighboring country are being maintained or could hardly produce due to high temperatures and low water levels in summer, French electricity exports to Germany fell by almost 60 percent in the first six months of the year. It was the first time since statistics began in 1990 that Germany exported more electricity to France than it imported electricity from France.
And that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Last week, France presented new data on its expected own electricity production. They turned out to be much worse than expected.
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Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck considers it unlikely that this situation will change fundamentally. The Green politician had therefore declared that two of the three remaining nuclear power plants should continue to produce electricity beyond the end of the year: “As of today, I think that’s necessary.”
In addition to nuclear power, lignite and hard coal power plants in particular should make their contribution to security of supply in times of crisis. To this end, plants that were previously on stand-by or were actually about to be shut down under the legally stipulated coal phase-out path are now being fully reintegrated into the market. Above all, however, power plants from the grid reserve and the security stand-by are affected.
The grid reserve is maintained in order to be able to guarantee the stability of the power grid every second. The use of power plants from the grid reserve is requested by the grid operators. These power plants are not part of the regular electricity market. That should now change temporarily.
Difficulties in supplying hard coal
The security stand-by are lignite-fired power plants that are held as a “last resort” in the event that electricity production is insufficient to cover consumption. However, according to current law, the power plants are only available for four years at a time. The first of a total of eight lignite-fired power plant blocks on the security stand-by went online in October 2016 for four years and has thus already been removed from the security stand-by.
There are currently lignite-fired power plants with a capacity of 1.9 gigawatts (GW) on standby. The last two of the eight blocks – Neurath from RWE and Jänschwalde from Leag – went on standby on October 1, 2019 and would actually go offline on October 1, 2023. Instead, the Neurath C (RWE) and Jänschwalde E and F (Leag) blocks will continue to produce electricity.
A few days ago, the energy supplier announced that three power plant units are “temporarily returning to the electricity market in order to strengthen security of supply and save gas in electricity generation”. In addition to the Steag coal group, the Essen-based company has brought most of the capacities back to the grid.
“Once the statutory ordinance and all official approvals/permits have been obtained, the blocks can be started up and participate in market activities,” says the East German coal producer Leag on request. However, the hard coal company can only bring its power plants back on line on November 1st. The reason for this is delivery problems with hard coal.
The whole thing is also still subject to the approval of state aid by the European Union. However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs assumes that this will be available at the beginning of October. Then the power plants can start their work.
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In the past few months, industry has repeatedly voiced criticism that old coal-fired power plants are being put back into operation too slowly. This leads to an unnecessary use of gas for power generation. The gas, in turn, is missing for industrial processes.
The main reason why the systems were not put back into operation sooner was the time-consuming preparations for possible full-load operation. “The restarting of the power plants was preceded by extensive work to prepare the plants for longer periods of use with high utilization,” explained RWE, for example. Components would have had to be extensively serviced and thoroughly cleaned, wearing parts replaced and updates to the control technology installed. In addition, early retirement had to be postponed for employees and new employees had to be hired from the labor market.
In addition, it was heard from the energy industry that the conditions for restarting were too narrow. This referred to the obligation to keep certain reserves of coal at the power plant site and to the very limited operating life of the power plants from the outset.
With the additional 6.7 gigawatts, almost 22 percent more coal power can now be accessed than before. The coal-fired power share in power generation from the last 31 percent is likely to increase significantly.
More: Forecast: In 2023, the price of electricity could rise to 500 euros per megawatt hour.