The operators of the Irsching 4 and 5 power plants in Bavaria have made an agreement with the TSO, Tennet GmbH, not to close down the two highly efficient but currently unprofitable gas-fired power plants near Ingolstadt, Germany, for at least three years. The units are needed to secure grid stability and security of supply, and will continue to operate to allow Tennet to resort to redispatch measures if necessary. Majority owner E.ON will be paid the plant fixed costs.
The owners of the gas fired plant - E.ON, N-Ergie, Mainova and HSE - had already warned, in November last year and again in March, that as the power station was no longer profitable owing to high gas prices and reduced run-time hours, they might have to shut down even this high efficiency flagship plant. A meeting of the owners was planned for
30 March when the issue would be decided. At the time E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen stated that a temporary shutdown was the only economically viable solution, and made it plain that the company expected "fair compensation" to continue operations. An alternative would be to keep the plant on standby, in the so-called strategic reserve, for grid balancing purposes, a position already reached by two older E.ON plants in southern Germany, Irsching 3 and Staudinger 4.
The agreement was concluded in close co-operation with the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). It was based on a decision taken by BNetzA that fixed costs would be paid to owners of power plants that were operated more than 10% of the time on demand of the transmission system operator. Tennet has stated that a closure of Irsching 4 and 5 would result in higher costs for consumers.
The growing input of renewable energy, in particular wind and solar energy, has put an enormous strain on the grid, says Tennet. It requires sufficient base load power to stabilise the grid and ensure the security of supply, particularly since grid expansion could not yet keep up with renewable power plant growth. With so-called redispatch measures, that is, intervention in the operation of power plants connected to their grids, the TSOs could attempt to avoid or overcome grid congestion. Tennet pointed out that Irsching 4 and 5 power plants were already being used on a regular basis for redispatch measures, and an increase in this kind of deployment was likely.
Irsching 4 and 5 are highly efficient combined cycle plants. With a capacity of 569 MW, unit 4 (Ulrich Hartmann unit, owned by E.ON) reaches 60.4% efficiency, the highest figure achieved anywhere. Unit 5, with a gross output of 860 MW, reaches an efficiency rating of 59.7%. Despite these high ratings it had not been possible to operate the plants profitably in recent months, as renewable power plant output in Germany has, under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), a priority claim for purchase and transmission.
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