STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, is one of various partners from German energy industry, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed agreements with during a delegation trip of Robert Habeck, German Minister for economic affairs and climate actions, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ADNOC and STEAG agreed on a sample delivery of carbon-reduced ammonia to be used for separation and capture of nitrogen oxides from the flue gases of STEAG’s German power plants (Figure 1).
“The agreement signed could be the first step to establish a long-term cooperation with a partner who is planning to play a crucial role for the supply of the European Union with hydrogen and its byproducts on a large scale,” says Ralf Schiele, member of STEAG’s management board.
According to the recent memorandum of understanding, ADNOC will supply STEAG with a first amount of “blue” ammonia produced on basis of hydrogen from natural gas. With that ammonia STEAG is running the process of separating nitrogen oxides from flue gases coming out of its German power plants. In mid-term perspective, ADNOC and its partners are planning to set up a “green” ammonia production based on energy from renewable sources.
In December 2021, it was announced that the UAE will create a global clean energy powerhouse intended to spearhead the country‘s drive to net-zero carbon by 2050. Consolidating their combined efforts in renewable energy and green hydrogen, ADNOC, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), and Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala) will partner under the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) brand. The partnership between three Abu Dhabi champions will have a combined current, committed, and exclusive capacity of over 23 GW of renewable energy, with the expectation of reaching well over 50 GW total capacity by 2030 and aspirations to grow this figure further.
Topics to be discussed in future between the partners reach from forthcoming hydrogen delivery to cooperation on the field of solar energy where STEAG’s subsidiary STEAG Solar Energy Solution (SENS) has proven to be very experienced.
“We are willing to deepen talks on these aspects in the near future since we see great opportunities for both partners to gain profit from each other’s specific competences,” Andreas Reichel, chairman of STEAG’s management board, is giving an outlook.
Finally, Reichel on behalf of STEAG, expresses his thanks to Minister Habeck for organizing the delegation trip which STEAG could participate in. “The trip and the opportunity to get in close and personal contact with our partners in the UAE was extremely helpful and speeded up talks. The Minister deserves great thanks for having made this happen,” is Reichel really satisfied with the trip’s outcomes. (STEAG/Si.)
STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany (Figure 1), presents encouraging key figures at the end of the third quarter of the current business year. Both sales and group EBIT are above the previous year’s level. In 2020, the energy company still had to cope with a difficult year owing to extraordinary burdens from the phasing out of coal and a process of transformation initiated within STEAG itself.
The current business figures confirm the favorable development of the long-established energy company in several respects, following a challenging phase of realignment. In addition to the general economic upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, STEAG had in particular to cope with the effects of the phase-out of energy generation from coal in Germany, which was set down in law in 2020, as well as the costs of a far-reaching restructuring program. Overall, this will result in the loss of around 1,000 skilled jobs in Germany over the next few years.
At the end of 2019, STEAG had already begun to fundamentally realign itself and orient itself towards the growth and focal markets of tomorrow’s energy world: “We have focussed on our traditional strengths in energy technology and energy management,” says Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Board of Management of STEAG. In the future, the company will focus primarily on solutions for industrial customers in the design, implementation and operation of complex plant technology, renewable energies, decarbonization, and on hydrogen as well as digital energy services.
STEAG has recently joined an international cooperation network that is endeavoring to ramp up a hydrogen economy in the “Grande Region Hydrogen” in Saarland, Luxembourg and the neighboring French region of Lorraine. “The sub-projects that the partners are jointly tackling there in the field of hydrogen are aimed at cutting environmentally harmful CO2 emissions by around 980,000 t/a by 2030,” explains Ralf Schiele, who, as a director of STEAG is responsible for Market and -Technology. The cooperation partners will invest around 600 M € in hydrogen production and the associated transport infrastructure, including around 74 M € for the construction of the “Fenne HydroHub” in Völklingen/Saarland.
That STEAG site with its long tradition is therefore a glowing example of the far-reaching transformation of the energy group. While hydrogen production will open a new chapter for the energy sector and industry in Saarland in the middle of the decade, STEAG’s coal story is likely to come to an end next autumn. “By the end of October 2022 at the latest, there will be only one coal-fired STEAG power plant left on the market in Germany, that being Walsum 10 in Duisburg/North Rhine-Westphalia. This means that we will complete our own coal phase-out far more quickly than many people thought we would,” says Rumstadt. In this respect, STEAG would not be affected by a possible bringing forward of the coal phase-out to 2030, as is currently being considered by the German government.
This is because STEAG has successfully participated in several decommissioning auctions since the end of 2020 in accordance with the Coal-fired Power Generation Termination Act (KVBG). The bids were accepted for a total of four of the company’s power plant units. In addition, STEAG is examining technical and commercial options for a fuel switch from hard coal to biomass or natural gas at the last remaining power plant unit, Walsum 10.
Furthermore, STEAG’s imminent departure from hard coal over and above the power plant closures is also reflected in the sale of the former subsidiary Power Minerals, which specializes in the marketing of power plant by-products. In spring 2021, STEAG sold the previous Group subsidiary to the Czech EPH group. “That was not only another important step in STEAG’s strategic realignment, but the new owner also offers our former colleagues excellent career prospects,” says Andreas Reichel, STEAG’s Human Resources and Industrial Relations director, expressing his satisfaction. Here, as foremost in the case of the jobs to be lost at the power plant sites in the future, it has been possible to find the best possible solutions for the departing employees by reconciling individual interests in cooperation with the employees’ representatives and the trade union. “So far, we have been able to avoid redundancies,” Reichel emphasizes.
This, too, contributes to providing STEAG with new scope for future investments. In addition to the option of switching the type of fuel at the only remaining hard coal unit, Walsum 10, a water electrolysis plant with a capacity of up to 500 MW is also planned at the same site and should make a significant contribution to the decarbonization of Europe’s largest steel site in Duisburg. A few kilometers further east, in Herne, one of the world’s most modern combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants will come on stream in 2022. “Based on the principle of combined heat and power, this plant will generate not only electricity but also heat and will secure the district heating supply in the central Ruhr region for decades to come,” says Schiele.
In addition, at the Herne power plant site, the switch from the previous energy source of hard coal to natural gas is also associated with a significant reduction in CO2 emissions by more than half. “This reduction in emissions may be even greater in the future because the new CCGT plant is already technically capable of burning a certain proportion of hydrogen,” says Schiele. In the long term, a technical upgrade of the plant is also conceivable, enabling it to operate on hydrogen alone. Furthermore, STEAG is converting the Herne 4 hard coal unit, which will be decommissioned in 2022, into a natural gas-fired boiler that will serve to secure district heating in the future.
All these forward-looking projects contribute to making STEAG economically viable for the future. After all, the future prospects associated with the current projects also played their part in making STEAG able a few weeks ago to arrange follow-up financing with its creditors until the end of 2023 thanks to a clear transformation strategy. “This provides us with the necessary financial leeway to continue resolutely along the transformation path we have successfully embarked on,” says Ralf Schmitz, Chief Transformation Officer at STEAG and in that function also responsible for the company’s finance division. The complex financing negotiations are also the reason why the 2020 annual financial statement could only be published at the end of Novembver 2021.
The favorable business development in the current year is also reflected in the relevant key figures. STEAG’s equity was kept stable at 478.3 M € even in the difficult 2020 financial year. Consolidated equity in accordance with IFRS, which was still at a level of minus 108.9 M € in the 2020 financial year, will be positive again at the end of the 2021 financial year. One-off effects are primarily responsible for this favorable development, but in contrast to 2020, they have had a positive impact in the present financial year. These effects include the contractual agreement with the Austrian energy group EVN on the exit from the operating company of the hard coal fired power plant Walsum 10 and the successful participation in the decommissioning auctions for hard coal fired power plants under the terms of the KVBG. These positive one-off effects made it possible to reduce the STEAG Group’s financial debt by more than 300 M €, or more than one fifth, by the end of the third quarter of 2021.
The first rapid successes from the strategy adopted are also evident in Group sales. After the first nine months of the current business year, this is 12.9 % up on the previous year at 1.6 bn €. At 137.9 M €, the STEAG Group’s EBIT in accordance with IFRS is also 7 % up on the same period last year. It is also well above expectations at the beginning of the current business year. In the light of favorable background conditions, the positive earnings development is expected to continue in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“In principle, we can be satisfied with STEAG’s current development,” Schmitz sums up. The transformation of the company, e. g., that has been initiated has borne fruit much earlier than expected a year ago: “We want to build on this and continue on our path with determination and growing success in the coming years.”
Fig. 2. New Chairman of the Board of Management at STEAG is Andreas Reichel (right). He followed Joachim Rumstadt (left), who stepped down at the end of 2021. Photo: STEAG
After 13 years, there was a change at the top of STEAG: Joachim Rumstadt stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Management at the end of 2021. After around 25 years in the service of the energy company, he would like to take some time out and then turn his attention to new challenges. His successor is STEAG Director Reichel (Figure 2). (STEAG/Si.)
Creos Deutschland, Encevo, GazelEnergie, GRTgaz, H2V, Hydrogène de France, SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH and STEAG GmbH have constituted themselves as the European economic business interest grouping (EEIG) “Grande Region Hydrogen” (Figure 1).
The Members of the EEIG have, each individually and partially together, set themselves the goal of establishing an integrated cross-border energy system in the Greater Region by linking cross-sector projects (hydrogen production, transport, and consumption). The Grande Region Hydrogen is composed of interconnected projects that are relying on each other. Furthermore, it will foster synergies to develop the whole value chain of the hydrogen market. The focus area is the Federal state of Saarland (Germany), the Lorraine Region (Grand-Est – France) and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The aim is to develop and optimize a hydrogen economy along the entire value chain using the outstandingly suitable structural conditions of the focus area.
The Grande Region Hydrogen will help decarbonize the industry and parts of the mobility sector and generate emission savings, which comes in line with the objectives set by the European Commission and the Green Deal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The projects part of the ecosystem should reduce CO2 emissions by more than 980,000 t/a by 2030.
Moreover, the projects part of the Grande Region Hydrogen will enable the transformation of Saint-Avold/Carling and Völklingen platforms toward hydrogen production, providing new expertise and job creation in the heart of Europe. Over 140 new direct jobs and 230 indirect jobs are expected, thus improving skills development through research and universities programs.
Finally, the projects part of the Grande Region Hydrogen will participate in the economic growth of the region, with significant investments – more than 600 M € for production facilities and transportation infra-structures. On the one hand, it will produce up to 61,000 t/a of hydrogen. On the other hand, the open access transport infrastructure will generate economic gains through optimized demand and supply matching. This scaling up effect will contribute to reducing the renewable hydrogen final price, an important step in the European hydrogen market development.
The Grande Region Hydrogen will also contribute to the attractiveness of this cross-border region because it opens the perspective for a new industrial chapter after the coal era, relying on green energy at a competitive price.
SENS LSG, a German-Austrian joint venture in the field of photovoltaics (PV) which was only founded at the end of 2020, is significantly advancing the energy transition in Greece. Together with the LSG Group from Vienna/Austria, SENS is to construct solar PV power plants with a total capacity of 480 MW in Greece in the coming months (Figure 1), and further PV farms shall be developed. STEAG Solar Energy Solutions GmbH, or SENS for short, is based in Würzburg/Germany and is a subsidiary of the energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany.
With 348 d and 2,800 h/a of sunshine, sunny Greece offers ideal conditions for power generation using solar energy as a renewable source. SENS LSG is now making use of the natural advantages of this location. In a total of nine project clusters together comprising 22 sub-projects, the young joint venture SENS LSG, as the project developer with responsibility for design and construction of the plants as well as O&M services, will establish systems with a capacity of 480 MWp in a first step, with construction scheduled to begin in 2022. Long-standing finance partners Green Source and Core Value Capital are also involved.
“We are pleased to be able to contribute together with our partners to the restructuring of the energy sector, leading to CO2 savings in Greece. With the development of new solar projects, we are building on activities in Greece that started as early as 2010, and would now like to expand our long-standing relationship,” explains Christian Kleinhans, Head of Project Development at SENS, commenting on the Greek venture.
The project not only benefits from the climatic conditions in Greece. The political conditions are also favorable, as the Greek government wishes to make greater use of the country’s enormous PV potential and vigorously press ahead with the energy turnaround before the end of this decade. Under the terms of a National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), the expansion of wind and solar power is being accelerated, following the country’s extreme dependence on fossil fuels even in the recent past.
Although some progress was made in the development of energy from renewable sources in the last decade, the country’s economic situation and the lack of investment meant that this was initially very slow. The aim of Greek policy is to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. That requires a rapid and tangible expansion of renewables. The plan is to build around 10 GW of new wind and solar power plants in Greece by 2030.
This is where SENS LSG’s project comes in and, on the basis of current planning, will play an important role in the intended move to generation from renewables. In this respect, the German-Austrian joint venture is making a significant contribution to the success of the energy transition in Greece (STEAG/Si.)
STEAG GmbH (Figure 1) is making significant progress in its process of transformation initiated in the autumn of 2020. Following several profitable transactions, such as the sale of the subsidiary STEAG Power Minerals and the successful participation in decommissioning auctions under the German Act on the Termination of Power Generation from Coal (KVBG), the Essen-based energy company has reached important milestones on its way to becoming a smart energy service provider. From today’s perspective, only the ultra-modern Walsum 10 hard coal fired power plant will play an active part on the electricity market from November 2022 onwards. There, STEAG is looking into a possible switch to wood pellets as a CO2 neutral fuel. This will enable the coal phase-out in Germany to be completed within a very short time.
“We are rapidly phasing out coal-fired power generation and opening up new growth areas and markets outside our existing core business: with integrated energy solutions for the decarbonization of industrial production processes, with energy from renewables, and with the development of digital business models,” says Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Board of Management at STEAG.
Furthermore, the recent good business performance has also contributed to a noticeable improvement in the company’s economic situation, and STEAG will now enter a new phase of transformation with a changed focus. As a result, there will also be a change in the management board: Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) Carsten König, Managing Director of the management consultancy AlixPartners, is leaving the company. The expert in financial and operational reorganization had been appointed a director of STEAG in February this year.
Fig. 2. Ralf Schmitz is new to the STEAG management team. Photo: STEAG
STEAG’s Supervisory Board has appointed Ralf Schmitz (Figure 2) as a new member of the management board. A partner in the Düsseldorf-based management consultancy Schmitz & Partner, he has extensive experience in the restructuring and transformation of industrial companies. Schmitz now becomes the 5th member of the STEAG management board alongside Rumstadt (Chairman), Andreas Reichel (Human Resources), Heiko Sanders (Finance) and Ralf Schiele (Market and Technology).
Guntram Pehlke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of STEAG GmbH, thanks the outgoing CTO for his dedicated service to the company in the recent months: “Carsten König was ready to take on this task at short notice and – in view of STEAG’s situation at the time – under difficult conditions. For this, he deserves our special thanks.” The Chairman of STEAG’s Supervisory Board believes that the continuation of the direction taken towards a future-oriented alignment of the energy company is now in good hands with Schmitz and the rest of the management team: “The foundation has been laid, and now it is a matter of implementing the next steps in a practicable and effective manner.” (STEAG/Si.)
The energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, in cooperation with Quadra Energy GmbH, Düsseldorf/Germany, is embarking on the marketing of green electricity. In that venture, STEAG is drawing on its extensive expertise in the field of energy trading with a view to concluding green power purchase agreements (Green PPAs) with operators of generation facilities based on renewable energy sources. STEAG will then use that energy to supply customers or feed into its own projects, i. e. for the production of green hydrogen, which STEAG is planning together with partner companies at the Duisburg-Walsum and Völklingen-Fenne sites.
Whereas energy from renewable sources was previously marketed largely under the terms of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in Germany, the market share of green electricity has recently increased significantly. One reason for this is that the EEG funding for new plants is now significantly lower than in previous years. On the other hand, more and more renewable generation facilities are reaching the end of the subsidy period stipulated in the EEG, with the result that their operators are looking for marketing alternatives.
“That’s where we and our partner QUADRA Energy come in,” explains Oliver Welling, who works in the Trading Division at STEAG and is responsible for the Green PPA business there. “We collect the renewables capacities from old and new plants that are no longer subsidized under the EEG regulations or never qualified in the first place, and then market them.”
Project partner QUADRA Energy already has many years of experience in the field of energy management services for operators of renewable energy generation plants: “In addition to the direct marketing of electricity from renewable energy sources with an entitlement to subsidies, green electricity from wind turbines without any funding entitlement is one of our core products. For this purpose, we group together many individual and distributed generation facilities in a large wind pool. In this way, operators obtain a source of income which lasts beyond the subsidy period. QUADRA combines this financial security with bespoke technical plant service to create an all-round carefree package. We are pleased to supply STEAG with electricity from our wind pool,” says Thomas Krings, Head of Sales at QUADRA Energy.
The term of the electricity supply contracts that STEAG and QUADRA are now concluding with plant operators is based on the age of the plants. “In order to extend the service life of older, formerly subsidized plants and thus increase their profitability, we can additionally offer our contractual partners technical services from STEAG,” says Welling.
This mainly involves the artificial intelligence-based systems from STEAG subsidiary STEAG Energy Services for predictive maintenance of wind and photovoltaic plants (Figure 1). “Predictive maintenance is based on a continuous analysis of the operating data of the plants in real time, which provides information in the event of even the smallest deviations, enabling anticipatory intervention and thus averting damage to the plants before it can occur,” says Ralf Schiele, Director for Market and Technology at STEAG.
In addition to the direct marketing of green electricity and its use in the company’s own green hydrogen production, the Green PPA business creates a link to another STEAG project. “STEAG is planning to build an “Energy Cloud” storage facility with a minimum energy storage capacity of 1,000 MWh and a capacity of around 250 MW,” says Christian Karalis, who is the responsible project manager at STEAG. The option of storing green energy temporarily and then using it specifically when there is corresponding demand from customers reduces price risks even further.
But the interaction between Green PPAs and electricity storage has not only economic advantages, but also and above all ecological benefits: “Because supply and demand do not coincide, given the fluctuating nature of generation from wind and solar energy, the supply has to be buffered. This means that it can actually be used by the customer when it is needed. Otherwise, there is a risk of negative electricity prices, including the shutdown of plants for power generation from renewables. The storage solution can save some of this energy which would otherwise be lost,” explains STEAG storage expert Karalis. In addition, customers can be supplied with green energy for many more hours, thus increasing the share of renewable energy overall.
Especially in combination with other technical measures, Green PPAs make an important contribution to the success of the energy transition: “Marketing green electricity in such a way that it is available when it is really needed on the market is an important step on the way to a successful energy transition,” says Schiele. Because that means a significantly better market integration of renewable energy sources than the EEG has been able to achieve so far.
It is precisely this combination of energy management expertise and plant engineering skills that engage in direct marketing: “By having additional options in the form of our hydrogen and storage projects to optimally market the electricity originating from the Green PPAs, we set ourselves apart well from pure electricity traders, because we can offer further stages of the value chain from a single source,” says Welling. (STEAG/Si.)
The energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, has published its yearly Global Compact report. STEAG has been a member of the German UN Global Compact network since 2011. The ten Global Compact principles constitute a voluntary commitment by companies to adopt sustainable business practices and fully assume social responsibility.
“Only by exercising social responsibility and acting in a sustainable, resource-conserving way will it be possible to secure the success of a business in the long term,” says Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the STEAG Board of Management. STEAG has been following this credo for years, he points out, and not least the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have recently once again proven the truth of this statement.
The report now presented follows on from the Sustainability Report published by STEAG in 2020 and combines the topics in that report with the areas in respect of which STEAG is obliged to report to the German Network of the UN Global Compact. The system and structure of the text have thus been modified and the content expanded.
In STEAG’s corporate activities, sustainability is not limited solely to environmental concerns. The company sees it as also including safeguarding employee and human rights, both internally and across supply chains, and protecting the health of its employees: “To firmly anchor these principles in our daily working routine, we have for years increasingly been taking into account ecological and social evaluation criteria in the key processes within the Group,” says Jörg Nierhaus, Chief Compliance Officer at STEAG.
The ten Global Compact principles address the issues of “protecting human rights”, “safeguarding employee rights”, “protecting the environment and conserving resources”, and “fighting corruption”.
“STEAG pays particular attention here to the safeguarding of human and employee rights at its foreign suppliers,” Nierhaus explains. The company also concerns itself with the life circumstances of its employees around the world, thus taking its welfare role as an employer far beyond the mere employment relationship.
“At present, e. g., STEAG is endeavoring to be able to offer a vaccination to all its employees in Germany as quickly as possible in cooperation with physicians and service providers. We are also currently organizing the delivery of oxygen concentrators to India, with the aim of securing medical care for our employees at the Indian subsidiary, STEAG Energy Services India, and their families,” says STEAG Management Board Member and Industrial Relations Director, Andreas Reichel.
In addition to the UN Global Compact criteria, STEAG is also committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) likewise defined by the UN. These set out guidelines for the sustainable and equitable development of global society in the period up to 2030. In 2015, all UN member states unanimously committed to pursuing these goals, which range from tackling poverty, protecting health and establishing gender equality to climate and environmental protection and upholding the rule of law.
“Together with the Global Compact principles, the Sustainable Development Goals serve as a kind of moral compass for STEAG’s entrepreneurial actions,” says Nierhaus. This can be seen, e. g., in the Group’s unceasing efforts to focus more and more on renewable energy sources, green hydrogen and concepts for decarbonizing industrial processes.
This includes, among other things, the expansion of an eco-friendly district heating supply in Essen, where the Group is headquartered, a strong commitment to the field of renewable energies and, above all in this respect, photovoltaics (PV), where the STEAG subsidiary STEAG Solar Energy Solutions is developing and operating numerous solar farms on the southern European market, in particular, and will be expanding these activities to the South American PV market in the future (Figure 1). In the Ruhr and Saar regions, Germany’s traditional industrial heartlands, STEAG hydrogen projects are contributing to decarbonizing the steel industry and so making it fit for the future, while STEAG itself has achieved a lasting reduction in its own CO2 emissions in Germany by around 85 % since 1990.
“These are all facets of a fundamental change that not only our economy as a whole, but also STEAG as an energy company, is currently undergoing. We therefore see the consistent alignment of our corporate activities with the Global Compact criteria and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as being an important prerequisite for successfully focusing STEAG in the long term on those fields where the future of the energy industry lies,” says Rumstadt. (STEAG/Si.)
The energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, the energy technology company Siemens Energy, Munich/Germany, the grid operator Creos Deutschland GmbH, Homburg-Saar/Germany, the Saarbahn public transport company, Saarbrücken/Germany, and the SHS steel companies (Stahl-Holding-Saar with its companies Dillinger and Saarstahl), Dillingen/Germany, developed a joint project idea aimed at establishing a cross-border and prospectively green hydrogen economy. Together, the project partners submitted an application to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for funding of the project as an important hydrogen project of common European interest – IPCEI for short (Figure 1).
On 28th May 2021, Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier announced that the project proposal had successfully passed the first selection round. The project is now invited to participate in the second phase, the so-called match making at the European level.
A drop of bitterness was the announcement made during the press conference that the Saarbahn project component will, for the time being and within the framework of the IPCEI selection procedure, remain without a positive decision. However, when asked, Altmaier stated at the press conference that this in no way meant that this part of the project would remain entirely without funding. Instead, talks were underway with those in charge in order to find alternative solutions.
The six partners see this overall good news as a confirmation of their joint approach to establishing a hydrogen economy in a cross-border European network: “The decision shows that we are on the right track when it comes to hydrogen,” says Jens Apelt, Managing Director of Creos Deutschland. Especially the cross-sectoral combination of hydrogen production, transport and use for the decarbonization of industry and mobility was a big plus of the joint project. “This is why the project partners are also counting on a solution being found for the part of the project concerning the Saarbahn public transport provider, because the positive aspects of the project network result precisely from the cross-sectoral interaction of the individual sub-projects,” Apelt says. The principle that the whole is more than the sum of its parts applies here.
“We are pleased that the IPCEI project “H2Syngas” submitted by SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar has cleared the first hurdle in the funding procedure and is now being considered at EU level. With the innovative H2Syngas technology, the SHS Group with its companies Dillinger and Saarstahl is taking the next important step on the way to CO2-neutral steel production and further reducing its CO2 emissions,” says Jonathan Weber, Managing Director of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar and COO of Dillinger and Saarstahl.
For the further procedure leading to a notification for the selected projects, i. e. the EU Commission’s approval under state aid legislation, the partners are counting on the joint project continuing to convince with its transnationality and diversity on the offtake and consumption sides. “After this decision, we are more convinced than ever of the joint development perspective,” says Ralf Schiele, STEAG’s Director responsible for Market and Technology.
The decision comes with the hope that the further decisions will be taken in the near future, especially as regards the prospective alternative funding for the Saarbahn project part, so that the partners can start working on the implementation of the project as soon as possible. “We’re in the starting blocks. The sooner we know about it, the sooner we can get down to implementing the project. And the sooner it is implemented, the sooner the Saarland, which is so rich in tradition as an energy location, will benefit from this pioneering project not only economically but also ecologically thanks to the avoided CO2 emissions,” explains Schiele. For Saarland, this means nothing less than the chance to establish itself as a pioneer of a successfully developed hydrogen economy.
All project partners are determined to seize this important opportunity, not only for the companies involved, but for the Saarland as a whole. (STEAG/Si.)
The management of energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, resolved on 4th May 2021 to register further power plant units for provisional closure. A similar application had already been made in early April for the Model Power Plant (MKV) in Völklingen-Fenne in the Saarland. This is now followed by applications for the Völklingen-Fenne combined heat and power plant (HKV) and the Bergkamen power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia (Figure 1). Once again, commercial considerations were the decisive factor behind the decision.
“The decision to close the plants on a provisional basis is necessary because, on the one hand, the general economic conditions prevent the two power plant units from being operated economically for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, continued operation of the plants beyond 2026 is practically ruled out by the statutory regulations for the phase-out of hard coal fired power generation,” says Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Board of Management of STEAG.
The application for provisional closure of the HKV and Bergkamen hard coal units will now be followed by a review by the transmission system operator (TSO) Amprion as to whether the plants are to be classified as system-relevant. The final decision on whether they are required to maintain security of supply will be made by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). “What the vote will be is hard to predict, especially in view of the recent decision on our Walsum 9 power plant unit in Duisburg,” says Ralf Schiele, who is the member of the STEAG Management Board responsible for Market and Technology.
In the case of the power plant unit 9 in Walsum, TSO Amprion had applied for classification as system-relevant, but contrary to previous practice the BNetzA had not granted that application.
Experience shows that the review of system relevance takes several months. If a unit is classified as system-relevant following the review, TSO Amprion will assume the operating costs of the power plant on a pro rata basis for the duration of the system relevance.
Irrespective of the pending decision on possible system relevance, STEAG remains nonetheless free to offer the two power plant units registered actually for provisional closure in one of the four remaining auction rounds for the decommissioning of hard coal fired power plants in accordance with the German Act on the Termination of Power Generation from Coal (KVBG).
The Bergkamen power plant unit, which went on line in 1981, has a net rated capacity of 717 MW. Since 2016, the plant has only produced electricity, so decommissioning would have no impact on the region’s heat supply.
This also applies to the heat supply by the Saar district heating network (FVS), into which the two power plant units MKV and HKV in Völklingen-Fenne feed: “We started to develop alternative heat sources here at an early stage when it was foreseeable that the output of the two plants would no longer be available in the long term due to the coal phase-out,” says Thomas Billotet, Managing Director of Saarbrücken-based STEAG New Energies GmbH. New heating plants are therefore under construction in Völklingen and Saarlouis in order to guarantee the heat supply at all times.
“And thanks to the development of heat extraction from the Velsen waste-to-energy plant, an additional 170,000 MWh of climate-friendly heating will be available to FVS every year from the end of next year. We are therefore well prepared for the moment when the power plant units in Völklingen are taken off the grid” says Billotet.
The site in the Fenne district of Völklingen also remains of central importance to STEAG. There, under the project title “Fenne HydroHub”, the energy company is planning to build an electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen, which will in future make an important contribution from Fenne to the decarbonization of the steel industry and the mobility sector in the Saarland.
In terms of human resources, the application for the temporary shutdown will also have no immediate impact on the sites and their workforces. “Since the BNetzA has only recently extended the system relevance for our Weiher and Bexbach power plants in the Saarland until spring 2025, there is also a corresponding need for personnel there in the medium term,” says STEAG’s Industrial Relations Director and board member Andreas Reichel. A possible temporary shutdown of one or both units at the Völklingen-Fenne site would indeed result in a reduction in staffing. However, this could be achieved by transferring personnel to the system-relevant sites at Weiher and Bexbach without any workforce adjustment measures.
In Bergkamen, too, no immediate workforce adjustment measures are expected in the event of a temporary shutdown, as the majority of the power plant team and technical service personnel will still be needed to maintain operational readiness.
“With today’s decision, STEAG is taking a further step on the way to realigning the company towards the growth areas of tomorrow’s energy industry,” says Rumstadt. STEAG had already started to realign itself and open up new business areas before the KVBG was passed. “In the Ruhr and Saar regions, we are committed to promoting the future use of hydrogen, we are using our extensive technical know-how to support our industrial customers and municipal partners in the key future task of decarbonization, and we are setting a good example in this important issue. Compared with 1990, STEAG has permanently reduced its own CO2 emissions in Germany by around 85 % to date.”
STEAG is consistently continuing along this path with the actual decisions. (STEAG/Si.)
The energy company STEAG GmbH, -Essen/Germany, notified on 2nd February 2021 the Federal Network Agency of its plan to permanently shut down its two power plant units Weiher 3 and Bexbach in the Saarland (Figure 1). The statutory publication on the transparency platform took place promptly following the notification. Previously, both units had only been registered for temporary shutdown. The deciding factor for the application for permanent shutdown was the shortened operating life for hard coal fired generating units as provided for in the Coal-fired Power Generation Termination Act (KVBG).
The KVBG, which came into force in August 2020, regulates the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in Germany. But not by 2038 at the latest, as is the case with lignite, but in principle much earlier in the case of hard coal. “With the exception of the young Walsum 10 power plant unit in Duisburg, we have to expect that our other plants will be shut down without compensation from 2026 at the latest, if they are still on the market then,” explains Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Management Board of STEAG GmbH.
The Weiher and Bexbach hard coal-fired power plants in the Saarland have been kept available as grid reserve plants since 2017. “At that time, we assumed that we would be able to offer generation from both plants on the market again at a later date and when conditions were more favorable. With the KVBG coming into force, economic considerations mean we have no choice but to now apply for permanent shutdown for both plants.”
Regardless of this, the Weiher 3 and Bexbach plants will, for the time being, continue to be kept available in the grid reserve and can be dispatched by the transmission system operator Amprion to stabilize the power grid if necessary and to ensure security of supply in the region. In the early days of the new year, this was the case on a number of occasions. Last year, the two power plants were dispatched a total of 21 times. Nevertheless, the number of operating hours was so low that Weiher and Bexbach would have practically no chance of winning a bid at a decommissioning tender.
Amprion will now check whether the power plants are still system-relevant. The transmission system operator can apply to the Federal Network Agency for an extension of the system relevance status beyond 2022. Only after the end of system relevance may both units be shut down permanently. A total of 230 skilled jobs would then be lost at both sites.
“The Saarland will continue to be of particular importance for STEAG,” Rumstadt comments, referring to the projects planned for the future. “At the Völklingen-Fenne site, e. g., we want to use the existing infrastructure and develop it into a hub for hydrogen production and sector coupling.” For Weiher and Bexbach, he says, there are concepts to develop both locations into centers for special grid-related assets based on natural gas. Large-scale battery systems for providing system services are already located there. In addition, the possibility of installing large-scale ground-mounted photovoltaic systems at both sites is currently being examined.
In the Saarland, STEAG and its partners operate a large regional district heating network, the Fernwärmeschiene Saar. Around 13,500 customers are currently supplied with environmentally friendly district heating. The largest customer is the Ford car factory in Saarlouis with its associated Industrial Supplier Park. STEAG will soon be starting another major project in the region: the Velsen Waste-to-Energy Plant will be upgraded to a combined heat and power plant and connected to the existing district heating network via a connecting pipeline. And with the 170,000 MWh of heat extracted every year, the carbon footprint of the Saar region’s district heating supply will improve yet again.
In Völklingen-Fenne, STEAG operates one of the world’s largest mine gas engine plants to generate electricity and heat. The plants are supplied from the company’s own 110 km long mine gas network. The electricity generated is fed into the public grid under the Renewable Energies Act (EEG) and the heat is supplied to the Saar district heating network. (STEAG/Si.)
