Germany's Kiel to build flexible gas power plant

MVV Energie AG

03/08/2015 16:48

* Contract signed for flexible large-scale plant 
    * To replace old coal plant from 2018 
    * Suppliers say sets standards for green power future 
 
    FRANKFURT, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The municipal utility of the 
northern German city of Kiel is to build a flexible gas-fired 
power and heat plant that suppliers say demonstrates an 
effective way of teaming up thermal and renewable power. 
    The 20-gas-engine plant supplied by General Electric's 
 GE.N  Jenbach plant in Austria will supply 190 megawatts (MW) 
of electrical and 192 MW of thermal capacity within minutes, GE 
and general contractor Kraftanlagen Muenchen said in a 
statement. 
     Kiel is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, a state with an 
plentiful supply of intermittent wind turbine electricity.  
    The plant has to be able to feed full power into the local 
transmission grid in short bursts in order to offset the 
volatility of wind driving turbines. 
    The requirement was for a plant to replace Kiel's existing 
354 MW coal-fired power plant which will be closed in 2018 in a 
city that relies on district heat piped to households and that 
is located far away from reliable thermal supply. 
 ID:nL6N0TO378  
    Multiple unit plants such as the one in Kiel, which will be 
arranged in four units of five blocks each, have the advantage 
of being operable in slices, replacing bigger units with less 
flexibility and at higher cost. 
    GE said the plant in Kiel should be ready for the winter 
2018/19 heating season. 
    The efficiency rate of the GE plant, that uses what is 
called co-generation of power and heat, will be more than 90 
percent, meaning that minimal use of primary energy is required. 
    Its annual CO2 emissions can be cut to 540,000 tonnes, less 
than a third of current levels, the statement said. 
    Germany aims to generate 80 percent of electricity from 
renewables by 2050 compared with 25 percent today, which means 
it will need many more back-up plants and new power delivery 
systems. 
 
 (Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by William Hardy) 
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1228; Reuters 
Messaging: vera.eckert.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: POWERPLANTS KIEL/