The Association of the Industrial Power Industry (VIK), Berlin/Germany, is very concerned about the announced further closures of coal-fired power plant units on a considerable scale. Various power plant units in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lusatia were expected to be shut down at the end of March 2024 when the Replacement Power Plant Provision Act expired. In total, the considerable amount of 3.1 GW of controllable generation capacity was in question.
In order to continue to guarantee security of supply, the VIK had already previously demanded that all measures that further reduce the secured generation capacity in Germany only take place when adequate replacement for the secured capacity taken off the grid is actually physically available.
VIK Managing Director Christian Seyfert: “From the VIK’s point of view, there must be no further decommissioning of secured capacity before appropriate compensation measures have been finalised and the corresponding grid expansion has also made the necessary progress. We are urgently renewing this demand.”
It is not a sustainable strategy for Germany to rely more and more on electricity imports from abroad to secure volatile renewable generation in this country. The VIK believes that the progressive decommissioning of conventional generation capacity must be coordinated with, e. g., the construction of back-up power plants or electricity storage facilities and the expansion of renewables in conjunction with the necessary grids. Accordingly, the expansion of renewable generation capacities should also be more closely synchronised with the necessary grid infrastructure, the VIK demands.
The German government has announced the Power Plant Strategy (KWS) for the construction of new gas-fired power plants. This is also expected to include the introduction of a capacity mechanism to incentivise the construction of hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants. From the industry’s perspective, this is a necessary step that must be taken swiftly in order to ensure security of supply so that the first tenders for new controllable generation capacity can be issued soon.
In particular, the VIK also points out that the role and potential of industrial combined heat and power plants must be taken into account and utilised with regard to the construction or conversion of power plants in the KWS, and that the remuneration of demand-side flexibility potential must also play a role. (VIK/Si.)
