Not enough electricity for the citizens: Schongau reserve power plant in use for the first time

Created: 02/13/2022, 06:50

By: Boris Forstner

Had to be ramped up several times after a five-year wait: The old UPM steam power plant, which is hidden in the building with the distinctive chimney and is a systemically important part of the nationwide emergency reserve.

© Archive hh

The Schongau-based paper manufacturer UPM has now noticed that the general power supply can no longer be taken for granted, among other things due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants, especially in the south: For the first time in five years, an old steam power plant had to be started up again as an emergency reserve, and that several times.

Schongau – The old UPM steam power plant is almost 50 years old, actually it should have been shut down long ago after a new power plant was built.

But the Federal Network Agency, which is responsible for ensuring the security of the power supply, did not allow this a few years ago: the power plant was systemically important and needed in the event of an emergency, they said.

UPM had no choice but to repair and re-approve a number of things at the time in order to be able to continue operating the power plant.

The old power plant has been available since mid-2017 – it has never been used.

Not enough power lines for power from the North Sea

But as early as April last year, UPM plant manager Wolfgang Ohnesorg suspected in a conversation with the local newspaper that this would soon change: "I'm curious to see what the situation will be like when more nuclear power plants are shut down," he said.

Because there are still not enough power lines that, for example, direct the wind power generated in the North Sea to the south, the nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were of great importance for the weather-independent power security.

And indeed: at the end of last year, things got serious for the UPM employees, who had previously only started up the power plant for practice.

"A call came from the network operator Amprion that the power plant had to be ready in a day and a half," says Ohnesorg.

This is actually routine for his employees, who also take care of the other power plants on the factory premises at the same time.

"But there aren't many left who know how to start up such an old planer," says Ohnesorg.

Since then, the power plant has been needed several times, sometimes just for a few hours, once for a few days.

Of course, this is paid for, just like the provision, and is contractually regulated.

However, Ohnesorg does not know exactly how exactly when the reserve power plant is needed is calculated.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Schongau newsletter.)

The next reserve power plant is near Ingolstadt

The Federal Network Agency refers to the request to the network operator Amprion, and its spokesman Andreas Preuss also finds it difficult to explain how the precautionary measures in the Europe-wide clocked power grid work exactly.

"We plan up to a week ahead with numerous parameters, and if it turns out that we need additional capacity, we call the operator of the corresponding reserve power plant," says Preuss.

The fact that the steam power plant at UPM is on the one hand far away in the south (the nearest reserve power plants are near Ingolstadt, one will not be added in Unterföhring until 2023) makes it just as interesting as the fact that it is operated with gas and can be ramped up relatively quickly .

"It takes much longer with a coal-fired power plant that was completely shut down," confirms Preuss.

This means that the Schongau power plant is likely to be used more often in the future - even if, with its 64 megawatts, it is by far the smallest of Germany's reserve power plants.

But the exposed southern location also makes this small fish interesting.

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