Against a backdrop of intensive policy debate on the legal framework for financing urgently needed investment in dispatchable power plant capacity, EnBW has officially commissioned one of Germany’s first hydrogen-ready gas turbine power plants at its Stuttgart-Münster site. The project is an important signal for more plants of a similar type, in view of the fact that southern Germany has a pressing need for highly flexible power plants to complement weather-dependent renewable energy sources and to maintain grid stability.
EnBW CEO Dr Georg Stamatelopoulos: “The power plants needed for the energy transition cannot be financed by the market alone. This is why the German government needs to create a framework of regulatory incentives for more investment as part of its programme for the first 100 days in power.”
In further fuel switch projects, EnBW is converting the previously coal-fired sites in Altbach/Deizisau and Heilbronn to hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants. In this way, EnBW is continuing the decarbonisation of its power plant portfolio – as of financial year 2024, the Group had already reduced its carbon intensity by 45% compared to 2022 (to 272 g/kWh).
- This relates to total capacity of 1.5 GW and a total investment of some €1.6 billion. Renewable energy sources now already account for around 59% of EnBW’s installed generation capacity.
Waste to power
The Stuttgart-Münster site stands out in the EnBW power plant portfolio. Its focus is on the thermal treatment of waste, that is, waste incineration. To get the most out of the fuel, it operates on the combined heat and power principle, generating heat energy for district heating along with electricity. Three coal-fired boilers have so far supplied additional heat when the waste incineration plant does not produce enough for the district heating network in winter. Those coal-fired boilers are now being replaced by the new hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plant. The existing CHP plant comprises a hard coal-fired power plant with three coal-fired boilers, a waste incineration plant with three waste-fired boilers, and three steam turbines. Since April 2024, a large heat pump has also been generating up to 24 MW of heat energy for district heating.
After around three years of planning and approval processes and two years of construction, the Stuttgart-Münster site has now been comprehensively modernised with the construction of a new gas turbine plant that has a gross capacity of 124 MW, including waste heat boilers and hot water boilers. The CHP plant is used for both base load and peak load supply. The new fuel switch plant will consequently supply the city of Stuttgart with 124 MW of electrical energy and 370 MW of heat. Following successful trials, the plant will go into commercial operation ‘in the near future’.
