Germany has handed out its first long-term capacity contracts for new dispatchable plant, and two utilities took almost all of them. The Bundesnetzagentur published the results on 3 November: 11 awards for about 5,160 reduced megawatts (rMW), against a tender volume of 4,500 rMW. RWE won three projects in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lausitz Energie Kraftwerke (LEAG) six in Brandenburg and Saxony, and one award each went to Gaskraftwerk Leipheim 20 GmbH in Bavaria and Stadtwerke Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg.
How The First Round Went
The auction ran under the new Electricity Supply Security and Capacities Act (StromVKG), with 8 September as the bid date. According to the regulator, 41 bids came in for a total of about 11,958 rMW, so the round was more than twice oversubscribed; seven bids were excluded because mandatory information or proof was missing. Power plants and storage competed in the same round. The volume-weighted average award came out at EUR 155,296 per rMW and year, well below the ceiling of EUR 244,000. The awards ran over the 4,500 rMW target only because the bid that first crossed the line was accepted in full.
By state, North Rhine-Westphalia gets about 2,118 rMW from three awards, Brandenburg about 1,819 rMW from four, Saxony about 910 rMW from two, Bavaria about 269 rMW and Baden-Württemberg about 45 rMW. The regulator's award list gives bidders, states and register numbers, but not the technology of each project. The Karlsruhe award stands out in that list: it covers twelve separate units in the market master data register, while most others cover one or two.
RWE's Three Sites
Power Technology reports that RWE's projects are at Voerde, Weisweiler and Werne, around 700 rMW each and roughly 2.1 GW in all, planned as hydrogen-compatible gas-fired stations. RWE says it has already engaged international consortia, reserved manufacturing capacity for the main components and started the approval procedures, and that work on the first station should begin within weeks. No turbine supplier has been named. The plants are paid for being reliably available, and that cost is passed on to consumers through a levy, the magazine writes. RWE already runs about 4.2 GW of gas-fired capacity in Germany.
The regulator said it would announce the date of the second round on 10 November.
Reduced Megawatts And Reserved Slots
Two details are worth a second look for anyone who plans or supplies such plants. The first is the unit: the auction counts reduced megawatts, not plant ratings, and none of the sources gives the installed output of the winning projects, so the numbers above should not be read as nameplate figures. The second is RWE's remark about reserved manufacturing capacity. With turbine and large-engine lead times running into the next decade, as we reported from Mitsubishi Power, a bidder without a production slot could hardly promise a commissioning date. For the balance of plant, hydrogen compatibility is more than a burner question; fuel system, safety concept and the auxiliaries all have to allow for the later conversion. Plant types of this kind are on our gas turbines page.
Sources: Bundesnetzagentur (press release), Bundesnetzagentur (award list), Power Technology
