RWE Power decommissions the last units at Frimmersdorf power plant

Construction work on the Frimmersdorf II power plant started in 1953. It was the successor to a plant built in 1926 and long since demolished. Between 1955 and 1970, two 100-, twelve 150- and two 300-MW power plant units were completed in quick succession. However, most of these units had already been decommissioned on account of their age. The two 300-MW units P & Q, locally known as “Paula” and “Quelle”, were the only ones left on standby until September 2021 to provide reserve capacity.

Energy location steeped in tradition was active for almost 100 years

Since they were commissioned, the two blocks “Paula” and “Quelle” had racked up a total of 700,000 operating hours and generated 244 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. This would have been sufficient to cover the entire electricity consumption of the city of Düsseldorf for 60 years. In total, the Frimmersdorf II site has generated almost 1,000 billion kilowatt hours of electricity since it went into operation – enough to supply Düsseldorf with electricity for 250 years. During their four years providing reserve capacity, the units were kept ready to generate power within 10 days in cases of emergencies on the German power grid.

Fixed schedule for phasing out electricity generation from lignite

Six more lignite-fired power plants are scheduled to be taken off the grid in the Rhenish mining region by the end of next year. Decommissioning of power plants in line with the Coal Phase-out Act will affect around 3,000 RWE Power employees by 2023. A collective agreement from August 2020 ensures that there will be no forced redundancies and the decommissioning process will be socially compatible. Payments from the government, like the adaptation allowance (“Anpassungsgeld”) also help to soften the impact from the plant closures. RWE will reduce its lignite capacities by two thirds by 2030. The consistent and steady coal phase-out taking place in several stages is now in full progress and another key element in RWE’s transformation to becoming a global leader in generation from renewables.