RWE Generation was awarded the contract for building and operating a gas-fired grid reserve plant in Biblis by transmission system operators (TSO) Amprion. The “grid stability plant” will be built just south of the current power plant site. It will provide a secure capacity of 300 megawatts and will come on stream by October 2022.
“We are delighted that we were awarded the contract for the Biblis site. The excellent existing infrastructure there and our reliable and flexible concept for the plant have won out. We will thus be able to make an important contribution towards security of supply in Southern Hesse”, states Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation.
The plant will not be available to the open electricity market; instead, it will only be operated on the request of system operators to ensure a secure and reliable supply of electricity. The objective is to be able to supply electricity at short notice using a gas-fired power station in order to ensure system stability going forward.
Background
From 1974 until 2011, RWE generated more than 500 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the nuclear power plant units A and B at the Biblis site. The gas-fired power plant will be built on a car park outside the site of the decommissioned and fuel-free former nuclear power station. Since 1 June 2017,the Biblis nuclear power plant units A and B have been shut down and are in the process of being dismantled. It is planned to release the plant from the requirements of the Atomic Energy Act within the next 15 years.
By the end of 2022, the last remaining power plants in Germany will be decommissioned. The use of renewable energy sources is continuously being expanded and the grid infrastructure is not being adapted as quickly as is necessary. The rapidly progressing energy transition presents system operators and energy suppliers with the increasingly difficult task of continuously ensuring a secure and reliable supply of energy. “Grid stability plants” are one of the building blocks towards overcoming this challenge.
