Germany May Need to Keep Reserve Coal Plants Longer Than Planned

(Bloomberg) -- Germany may need to keep its fleet of mothballed coal-fired stations available for longer than expected as a drive to build new gas plants is severely behind schedule, grid operator Amprion GmbH warned. 

After Europe’s biggest economy shut its last nuclear plant in 2023, its power generation margin has shrunk. The coal plants are there to help keep the lights on if needed and can be started up on short notice. 

But if there are no alternatives, they will need to be available well into the next decade, Christoph Mueller, Amprion chief executive officer said on the sidelines of the Handelsblatt Energy Summit in Berlin. 

“Some of these plants currently only have an operating perspective until 2026, the vast majority until 2031,” Mueller said. “We should do a proper analysis now in case we need these power plants for longer.”

Germany’s energy regulator said two years ago that as much as 21 gigawatts of new gas plants would be needed to meet a proposed target to exit coal by the end of this decade. But a plan to build a fraction of that was last month scrapped by the government. 

It currently costs more than €1 billion ($1.04 billion) a year to keep the reserve fleet ready, according to Amprion. Coal operator Steag GmbH has already complained that it’s unprofitable to have power stations on standby.

“But if we only tell the operators in 2030 that they will be needed until 2035, it will definitely be more expensive, if longer operation is still possible at all.”

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