Gas crisis: Shut down coal-fired power plant in Lower Saxony is back on the grid
Created: 08/01/2022 10:26 am
By: Jan Knötzsch
The Mehrum hard coal-fired power plant in Hohenhameln in Lower Saxony: It will soon be back in operation from the reserve it has been in since December 2021.
© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
The hard coal-fired power plant in Mehrum in the district of Peine in Lower Saxony has been on reserve since December 2021.
Now it should be reactivated.
When and why?
Hanover/Hohenhameln – The energy crisis in Germany can no longer be ignored.
Now a shut down coal-fired power plant in Lower Saxony is supposed to remedy the situation in order to avert the energy crisis.
Although the extreme gas emergency, which many experts expect for the winter or spring of 2023 at the latest, has not yet occurred, the term gas crisis is already making the rounds.
And not unfairly so.
But it is not only the impending gas shortage that is worrying, but also the rising electricity prices - and possibly a power shortage as Christian Lindner fears for the winter.
Finance Minister Lindner (FDP), who wants an increase in child benefit and the basic tax allowance, also demands: no more electricity from gas.
Lindner calls for drastic measures because of the gas crisis.
Most recently, in connection with the gas crisis in Germany, there was a discussion about extending the service lives of the three nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany.
Now, as a substitute for electricity from natural gas, the first hard coal-fired power plant from the reserve is about to restart.
In the gas crisis, Christian Lindner demands: "No longer produce electricity with gas" - Hard coal-fired power plant has been allowed to go back on the grid since July 14th
Christian Lindner should be happy about this after his "No more electricity from gas" demand: Since July 14, 2022, a political ordinance has allowed hard coal-fired power plants to be put back into operation from the grid reserve 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.
Now everything looks as if, in times of the energy crisis, a hard coal-fired power plant will actually go back into operation from the reserve - one in Lower Saxony: the Mehrum power plant in Hohenhameln between Hanover and Braunschweig.
The coal-fired power plant, which is to be put back into operation in Lower Saxony during the gas crisis in Germany, belongs to the Czech energy group EPH.
It is the only market return of a power plant so far - at least that's what the Federal Network Agency reports, which should make FDP politician Christian Lindner happy.
“We have to work to ensure that the gas crisis is not followed by an electricity crisis.
That's why electricity can no longer be produced with gas," said the chairman of the Free Democrats recently via
Bild am Sonntag
.
Habeck spokesman: Gas in the gas crisis in power generation should be replaced - what happens to the nuclear power plants?
"Robert Habeck would have the legal authority to prevent this," Lindner continued in the "Bild am Sonntag", where he also advocated not shutting down the remaining nuclear power plants, "but using them until 2024 if necessary." This extension of the lifespan for the nuclear power plants demands the FDP, while the Greens falter.
Within the party there are different voices in the gas crisis - from a clear "No" to the nuclear power plant lifetime extension to possible compromises to the tendency that in the energy crisis one has to swallow the extension as a toad.
Meanwhile, for the CDU, Friedrich Merz recently called for new fuel rods for the nuclear power plants and spoke out against the stretching operation of the three nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany.
A spokesman for Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck recently announced during the gas crisis that a complete renunciation of gas in the electricity sector would lead to the electricity crisis and blackouts: "There are systemically important gas-fired power plants that have to be supplied with gas.
If they don't get any gas, serious disruptions occur.
Unfortunately, that is the reality of the electricity system, which you have to know in order to ensure security of supply," said the Habeck spokesman.
Therefore, work has long been going on to replace gas in the gas crisis in power generation - if this is possible.
And this is exactly where the shut down coal-fired power plant in Lower Saxony comes into play.
Gas crisis in Germany: Restarting of decommissioned lignite-fired power plants is also planned
The Mehrum power plant in the Peine district – by the way, the last time there was a major fire in Peine – has been in reserve since the beginning of December 2021.
The Braunschweiger
Zeitung
was the first to report on a possible return of the power plant to operation
.
The commercial manager of the operating company, Kathrin Voelkner, told the
German Press Agency
(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.
According to
spiegel.de
, in 2018 it generated so much electricity that theoretically more than half a million model households could be supplied with electricity.
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In addition to the ordinance that will allow hard coal and oil-fired power plants to be put back into operation in Germany in the future, an ordinance for restarting decommissioned lignite-fired power plants is also being prepared for the beginning of October.
In addition, there is a Gas Saving Ordinance that is intended to prevent the unnecessary generation of electricity from natural gas during the gas crisis in Germany.
As is well known, consumers are faced with a gas surcharge during the gas crisis – it is scheduled to start on October 1, 2022.