German coal exit scheme shuts Hamburg power plant
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Swedish power company Vattenfall has shut down its two-coal fired-power plants in Moorburg in Germany on Monday after winning funds in Germany's phase out coal program.
The first winners of the tenders for early decommissioning were awarded last December for 4,788 MW of hard coal power generation, more than the 4,000 MW originally planned.
RWE and Vattenfall AB both secured contracts for closing two power plants each, while Uniper SE successfully bid one of its assets, according to results by Germany's grid regulator, Bundesnetzagentur (BNA).
The Moorburg coal plant, which has been online since 2015, has two blocks with a combined capacity of 1,600 MW.
Originally, it was planned to run until 2038, but was operating at a loss last year, according to press reports.
The first phase out coal tender was significantly oversubscribed, BNA said, resulting in a volume-weighted average of €66,259/MW.
Individual awards ranged from €6,047/MW to €150,000/MW.
RWE was also successful in the first round of phase out coal tenders with its 764-MW Westfalen and 794-MW Ibbenbüren plants in Germany.
Overall, eleven hard-coal fired power plants were awarded a tender to close down this year.
In April, a second round of tenders was awarded by BNA with a combined capacity of 1,514 MW.
The three successful bids were the hard coal-fired units Wilhelmshaven (757 MW) of utility Uniper; Mehrum (690 MW) of EPH in northern Germany; and Mibrag's lignite-fired Deuben (67 MW) in the east.
Bids ranged from zero up to €59,000 MW.
A third round of tenders to close a further 2.5 GW of coal-fired power generation will be award in September, and there will be more tenders over the nect few years.
A year ago, Germany passed legislation to end coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest and agreed on a shutdown schedule for individual lignite power plants as well as compensation payments for operators.
Germany aims reduce its fleet of hard coal and lignite-fired capacity to roughly 30 GW by the end 2022, down from 34 GW in the first quarter of 2021.
By 2030, the country aims to have only 8 GW of hard coal power plant generation and 9 GW of lignite in operation.
