STEAG New Energies GmbH

The Energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, notified on 30th March 2021 the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) of the provisional closure of the Völklingen Model Power Plant (MKV) unit in the Saarland (Figure 1). This announcement on the transparency platform of the EEX energy exchange is required by law and was made immediately after the decision was taken by the management. Commercial considerations were the main factor behind the notification of provisional closure.

On account of the sharp increase in the share of electricity from renewables in the grid, the number of full-load operating hours of the MKV hard coal fired unit had been declining for several years. This year, for the fourth time in a row after 2018, 2019 and 2020, the unit was temporarily shut down from the beginning of April to the end of September and did not participate in market operations during that period. The MKV, with a gross electrical capacity of 195 MW, was commissioned in 1982.

On the application for closure will now be followed by a review by the transmission system operator Amprion to ascertain whether the power plant unit is to be classified as system-relevant in terms of ensuring a secure and stable energy supply. Irrespective of the outcome of this review process, which will take up to one year, STEAG is free to enter the MKV power plant unit in one of the five following decommissioning auctions for hard coal fired power plants provided for by the German Act on the Termination of Power Generation from Coal (KVBG). The KVBG 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 fact much earlier in the case of hard coal.

Should the BNetzA and Amprion grant the application, the job losses associated with the provisional closure could be arranged in a socially acceptable way: “Some of our employees at the site are expected to take retirement in the foreseeable future, and for others there are prospects at the neighboring STEAG sites in Bexbach and Weiher in the Saarland, as these two power plant units are considered to be system-relevant and therefore also require personnel,” says Andreas Reichel, Human Resources Director of STEAG.

However, should the BNetzA and Amprion conclude that the MKV is to be regarded as system-relevant, this would be tantamount to a ban on decommissioning. The power plant unit would be transferred to the grid’s reserve capacity until further notice and STEAG would have a legal claim to reimbursement of a large part of the plant’s operating costs. “The provision of power plant capacity that can be called up at any time is an important contribution to the success of the energy transition and comes at a price,” says Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Board of Management of STEAG.

STEAG operates several power plant units at the Völklingen-Fenne site. In addition to the MKV, these are the Völklingen combined heat and power plant (HKV) with 236 MW and the natural gas and mine gas fired engine cogeneration plant (MHK) with 42 MW of electrical output. In addition, there is a boiler system with a thermal output of 170 MW for pure heat generation.

In this context, a provisional shutdown of the MKV will have no impact on the Saar district heating network supplied by the site. This is all the more so, as STEAG has already demonstrated foresight by investing in further alternative plants for heat generation, which will be ready for operation from the fourth quarter of this year, in advance of the 170,000 MWh of environmentally friendly waste heat from the Velsen waste-to-energy plant also becoming available annually from the 2022/2023 heating period onwards. This will significantly improve the already good carbon footprint of district heating supply at the Saar in the future.

“This makes two things very clear: Firstly, the district heating supply in the region is secured in the long term even beyond the final coal phase-out. And secondly, thanks to investments of this kind, the Saarland will continue to be an important pillar of STEAG’s operations,” says Thomas Billotet, Managing Director of Saarbrücken-based STEAG New Energies GmbH.

The site in the Fenne district of Völklingen also remains of central importance to STEAG. There, under the project name “Fenne HydroHub”, the energy company is planning to construct an electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen, which in the future will make an important contribution to the decarbonization of the steel industry and the mobility sector in the Saarland.

To this end, STEAG recently applied for project funding as an IPCEI – “Important Project of Common European Interest” – together with network operator Creos Deutschland, plant manufacturer Siemens Energy, mobility service provider Saarbahn and steel producer SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar. (STEAG/Si.)

STEAG New Energies GmbH, Saarbrücken/Germany, a subsidiary of Essen-based energy company STEAG GmbH, has established a joint venture together with Karl Uhl GmbH, Bochum/Germany, a leading business in the field of industrial compressed air technology.

The aim of the new STEAG UHL Druckluft-Versorgung GmbH is to expand the compressed air contracting business in Germany by combining the strengths of the two partners. STEAG holds 70 % of the shares in the joint venture, and Karl Uhl GmbH the remaining 30 % (Figure 1).

The transaction was carried out in the mutual conviction that by combining the entrepreneurial strengths of the two enterprises they will be able to act even more effectively in the future. “STEAG New Energies already offers its customers precisely tailored energy and compressed air solutions today. By investing in the joint venture, we are further strengthening our technical expertise in this area,” says Thomas Billotet, spokesman for the management of STEAG New Energies.

Karl Uhl GmbH looks back on a 90-year tradition as a highly specialized family business. “The product range extends from compressed air generation, conditioning and distribution through complete electrical, measuring and control technology to the ventilation of compressed air systems and heat recovery,” says Managing Director Peter Uhl. Uhl is contributing this expertise and its after-sales service, which is particularly experienced in issues of plant monitoring and maintenance, to the new company.

The strengths of the two future partners include the development and implementation of individual solutions tailored exactly to the needs of the respective customer in terms of system design and energy efficiency. “With the new company, STEAG’s range of services will again be significantly expanded so that in future we will be able to offer customers the entire range of technical solutions for power generation and the efficient operation of energy-intensive plants from a single source,” says Rüdiger Sass, who will take on the management of the new company together with Peter Uhl.

Both partners are convinced of the strategic importance of the cooperation because, thanks to the bundling of competencies, the new company will be able to meet the growing demand for integrated energy concepts, especially for industrial customers or for municipal and rural utilities, even better and more individually than before. (STEAG/Si.)

Saarbrücken-based STEAG New Energies GmbH and Fernwärme Verbund Saar GmbH (FVS), together with Entsorgungsverband Saar (EVS), will add a heat extraction system to the waste-to-energy plant (AVA) Velsen (Figure 1) . In the future, around 170,000 MWh/a of heat will be fed into the Saar District Heating System via a 6 km long connecting pipeline.

With this project, the partners are securing the climate-friendly district heating supply in the Saarland state in the long term. The necessity for that arises, among other factors, because of the Coal-fired Power Generation Termination Act (KVBG), which was passed only a few weeks ago. In the medium term, a replacement had to be found for the heat from the STEAG power plant in Völklingen-Fenne that will no longer be available in a few years’ time.

“We made efforts at a very early stage to find technical alternatives to secure the district heating supply,” says Thomas Billotet, Chairman of the Board of Management of STEAG New Energies, a subsidiary of the Essen-based energy company STEAG GmbH. In addition to the planned construction of two new heating plants, this is now being achieved through cooperation with EVS as the owner of AVA Velsen. “The tapping of the climate-friendly heat potential will also benefit the customers of the Saar District Heating System. Their heating supply will be even more resource-efficient in the future.” At the same time, with this project, STEAG is delivering on its the promise that has become the motto of all the Group’s entrepreneurial activities: “Securing energy supply. Now and in the future.“

For EVS, the signing of the cooperation agreement marks the implementation of a lighthouse project that has been pursued for a long time, but for various reasons has not yet been put into practice. “As a public special purpose association, acting cost-consciously is in our very DNA, because we owe this to the fee payers,” says Georg Jungmann, Director of EVS. However, the use of the heat generated by the AVA Velsen not only makes good economic sense, but also brings considerable advantages for the climate and environment. “This shows that the waste management industry can also make an important contribution when it comes to the transformation of our energy supply towards sustainability,” adds EVS Director Michael Philippi.

Already today, 99 % of the heating energy and hot water supplied by the Saar District Heating System (FVS) to its more than 13,500 customers along the 660 km long pipeline network comes from climate-friendly recovery of waste heat or from resource-saving combined heat and power generation (CHP).

“Until now, the CO₂ emissions from district heating have been around 135 g/kWh. This is already significantly less than a gas heating system, which emits just over 200 g, or an oil heating system with over 260 g/kWh,” explains Florian Eder, who is in charge of the project at STEAG New Energies. Thanks to the renewable share of the heat from AVA Velsen, this figure will improve further in the future, which will also be a considerable added value for heating customers.

The partners are now investing up to 20 M € in the upgrading of the Velsen thermal waste recovery plant to a combined heat and power plant and the construction of a connection line to the existing FVS district heating system. The amount of possible public funding has not yet been determined. What is certain, however, is that the 170,000 MWh/a of heat supplied from thermal waste recovery will further improve the climate footprint of the district heating supply in the Saar.

Construction of the project is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2021. Completion is expected to be achieved on time for the 2022/23 heating season. (STEAG/Si.)

STEAG New Energies GmbH, Saarbrücken/Germany, and the Zweckverband Geo-wärme Erding (Erding Geothermal Energy Association) are expanding the existing Erding 1 combined heat and power plant, which will enable up to 18 % of the total heating requirements of the Bavarian district town of Erding to be covered by geothermal energy in the future (Figure 1). This climate-friendly method will also supply the Erding thermal spa, the world’s largest thermal spa with around 1.8 M visitors per year.

With the expansion of the Erding 1 heating plant, the Zweckverband Geowärme Erding is taking account of the continuing rise in demand for climate-friendly district heating. Together with project partner STEAG New Energies, the association is now laying the foundations for even more households in Erding to benefit from a resource-saving district heating supply in the future. At the same time, the expansion of capacity will secure the further expansion of district heating in the city of Erding in the long term. The current supply (63 MW including the complete Erding thermal spring) is covered by heating plants 1 and 2. Without exception, the expansion serves to cover the planned further expansion to 75 MW in terms of generation.

Geothermal heat utilisation involves extracting the 63 °C warm thermal water from a depth of around 2,300 m and distributing it to the two geothermal heating plants and the Erding thermal spa. While it is used in the geothermal heating plants to ensure the supply of heat to the citizens of Erding, it is also used as bathing water following treatment in the thermal spa.

“The multiple use of the thermal water for the district heating supply of residential buildings as well as for the operation of the thermal baths is unique in Germany – we are very proud of this”, says District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer, who is also Chairman of the Erding Geothermal Energy Association: “We are very satisfied that in STEAG New Energies we have a reliable partner at our side with whom we have been successfully promoting the expansion of our geothermal energy and thus the local energy turnaround in Erding for so long”.

Technically, the extension of the Erding 1 heating plant consists of a new compression heat pump and a new combined heat and power unit (CHP) with an electrical and thermal output of 1 MW each. The extension is completed by two new heating water storage tanks with a total capacity of 300,000 l of heating water. They serve to decouple production and consumption and can thus be used to optimise the operating time of the compression heat pump and the CHP unit and to cover peak loads. The measure amounts to a total investment volume of 7.8 M €.

The expansion will increase the capacity of Geowärme Erding to a future connected load of 75 MW, which corresponds to around 18 % of Erding’s total heating requirements. If the same heat output were to be generated in the conventional way, no less than 8 M l of fuel oil would be required. Seen in this light, Geowärme Er-ding will save 13,000 t/a of CO₂ emissions in future.

This makes Geowärme Erding a real showcase project in terms of climate and resource conservation – and it has been for more than three decades, because this is how long the cooperation between STEAG New Energies and the city of Erding and Geowärme Zweckverband Erding goes back. The starting signal was given in 1994, when the construction of the district heating network was started together, before geothermal heating plant 1 went into operation in 1998. In 2009, due to the high demand for the environmentally friendly geothermal district heating supply, geothermal heating plant 2 was finally put into service.

“The geothermal heat utilisation in Erding is a real success model for all partners. Thanks to modern technology, all those involved and not least the climate and the environment benefit from a heat supply that is as environmentally friendly as it is reliable”, says Thomas Billotet, Managing Director of STEAG New Energies, who is pleased with the successful completion of the project. (STEAG/Si.)

Since 1st January 2019, Thomas Billotet has been spokesperson for the Executive Board of STEAG New Energies (SNE), Saarbrücken/Germany. Since 2008, he has been responsible for Technology and Operations and will now also lead the Commercial section. Markus Laukamp, responsible for the sale of distributed energy systems and the development of wind energy projects, is now also responsible for managing SNE’s comprehensive investment portfolio with immediate effect. This reorganisation and focussing at the top level of SNE became possible after Dirk Klingen, former Commercial Manager and spokesperson for the Executive Board, left the company on 31st December 2018.

A lunar landscape of boulders and craters as far as the eye can see – project partners Mingas-Power, ENNI Energie & Umwelt Niederrhein (ENNI) and RAG Montan Immobilien (RMI) have officially brought the Kohlenhuck wind farm on the plateau of the Kohlenhuck mine heap in the north of Moers/Germany online. Mingas-Power, a joint venture between STEAG New Energies and RWE Power, holds a 33 % stake in these four wind turbines, each up to 190 m in height. The wind farm has an overall output of 12 MW. Around 32 m KWh of green electricity are to be generated here each year in future, corresponding to the power consumed by 9,000 households in the region. This is the third wind farm that Mingas-Power has built on a former mine dump: Kohlenhuck in Moers now joins Oberscholven in Gelsenkirchen-Buer and Lohberg in Dinslaken.

The three directors of the company founded for this specific purpose, ENNI RMI Windpark Kohlenhuck GmbH – Uwe Bruckschen (ENNI), Ulrich Porath (RMI) and Gerd Wagner (Mingas-Power) – hit the symbolic red button to put the wind turbines into operation on 8th September 2017 together with the Mayor of Moers. These three partners have invested around 20 m € in these turbines located on and in front of the former Friedrich-Heinrich mine‘s spoil tip. (STEAG/Si.)

On 1st January 2016 Dirk Klingen became Managing Director of the STEAG New Energies GmbH, Saarbrücken. He follows to Stephan Nahrath, who changed to Westfalen Weser Energy GmbH & Co. KG in Paderborn/Germany at the end of 2015.

Environment-friendly community heating from the nearby STEAG New Energies biomass-fuelled thermal power station, which has already been supplying heat to the Mügeln district of Heidenau, is to be extended to include Heidenau South and the existing circuit is being enlarged for this purpose. By the end of 2015 some 4,500 households will be connected into the supply system. The project will further strengthen the long-standing supply partnership that has existed between Heidenau Technical Services and STEAG New Energies GmbH.
Construction work commenced in November 2014. The new heating pipeline is to run for nearly 3 km through the town of Heidenau and heat is scheduled to be delivered through the new line in time for the heating season commencing in autumn 2015. According to Dr Stephan Nahrath, chairman of the management board of STEAG New Energies GmbH, the heat will be generated at the company‘s biomass-fired thermal power plant in Dresden and then fed into the extended district heating network. The new thermal pipeline, which is expected to provide a CO2 saving of 1,500 tonnes a year, will increase the existing supply output by 7 MWth.
The more eco-friendly the energy, the lower is the primary energy factor, i.e. the ratio between primary energy and final energy. In the case of the Heidenau supply system the primary energy factor is zero. And this benefits contractors and developers who are undertaking new-builds or energy upgrades to existing buildings. (STEAG New Energies GmbH/Si)

The expansion of energy storage technology is a key factor for the success of the energy transition process. In early January 2015 Dr Wolfgang Benesch, Head of Research and Development at STEAG GmbH, presented a new research project with STEAG involvement: the development team at STEAG’s Lünen power plant is to work with international partners on the further development of Power to Liquid technology. Carbon dioxide emissions from the coal-fired power plant are to be converted into fuel. The project is being sponsored by the EU’s ‘Horizon 2020’ research programme to the tune of 11 million euros.

The project partners are Carbon Recycling International (CRI), Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe, Hydrogenics and I-DEALS, and several universities and research institutes in Europe. CRI is to contribute an important element to the project: at its production facility in Grindavik, Iceland: CRI is already producing methanol on the basis of renewables. The technology uses electricity to transform CO₂ into methanol. Methanol is a widely used gasoline additive, and is also used in biodiesel production and the manufacture of chemical derivatives.

Dr Wofgang Benesch, head of R&D, issued a statement outlining that the project was a further step towards the development of marketable storage technologies at STEAG. At the start of 2014 another storage project was also making its market debut: LESSY, one of Germany’s first lithium-ion storage batteries was approved for use in network stabilisation by the transmission system operator. STEAG now supplies output from the LESSY storage battery on the market as the primary balancing power required for the stabilisation of the electricity grid. The large-format storage battery is now dimensioned sufficiently to store or deliver a capacity of 1 MW within a few seconds.

Apart from storage of power in batteries (Power to Electricity) and its conversion into fuel (Power to Fuel) the Essen-based company is also involved in further areas of development for the future. These include research projects in the fields of Power to Gas and Power to Chemicals. As Benesch explains, for an integrative power generation company like STEAG it is important to conduct research and development into storage facilities without being confined to any single technology. The area of activity has therefore been given the working title ‘Power to X’. (STEAG GmbH/Si)