Source: Energy & Management Powernews, March 14, 2022
Actually, the coal use of the combined heat and power plant north in Munich should be converted to natural gas as soon as possible. The Stadtwerke Munich brakes now.
It is for the Stadtwerke Munich (SWM) as well as the Bavarian capital an essential point of their self-set climate strategy: a quick exit from the coal use in the Munich combined heat and power plant north (block 2) to reduce CO2 emissions also in the sense of the citizens' petition of 2017.
At the beginning of the year, SWM had announced that a conversion of the coal block to natural gas was still technically feasible for the 2022/23 heating period. Due to the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, "however, a reliable supply of natural gas is in question," SWM now announced.
The filling level of the southern German natural gas storage facilities is currently below 20% and the gas flows from Russia remain well below the long-term average. In response, wholesale gas prices have increased more than fivefold. This also applies to the prices already traded on the market for the summer and for the coming heating period.
Whether it will be possible to sufficiently fill the southern German gas storage facilities in the summer in view of the weak inflows is uncertain, according to the supplier. For SWM, there is a "high risk of a continued tense gas supply situation in Germany into the coming winter and possibly beyond."
Block 2 would be a major consumer of natural gas
According to the Federal Network Agency, Block 2 is systemically relevant in terms of electricity and therefore cannot be shut down without replacement. According to the municipal utility, it is also needed to secure the district heating supply. Thus the question arises for the local supplier whether a conversion to natural gas - as planned so far - is justifiable to the heating period 2022/23.
Because thereby a new large consumer would go in Munich to the net, which would need during the heating period clearly more natural gas than all Munich private customers of the SWM supply GmbH together. The supply situation could thereby further aggravate itself and in particular a forced disconnection of industrial customers as first concretely concerning with a bottleneck would be then more probable.
The SWM will propose therefore alternatives to the committee for work and economics on 15. March. The conversion could be temporally delayed, approximately to the heating period 2023/24 or also 2024/25. Also a further enterprise of the block stands for discussion. The municipal utilities themselves prefer to make the switch from coal to gas for the 2023/24 heating period. If this could not be realized due to further developments, SWM would prepare a new proposal in due course.
Renewable strategy of SWM remains untouched
The strategy towards one hundred percent renewable electricity and heat supply for Munich, however, remains unchanged, emphasizes Florian Bieberbach, Chairman of the SWM Management Board: "However, we agree with Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck that the short-term focus of energy policy action must now be primarily on security of supply."
The combined heat and power plant North consists of three blocks with a thermal output of 900 MW and an electrical output of 360 MW. Two units are powered by waste, one by coal.
Author: Heidi Roider