E.ON Announces Closure of Two Power Stations, Germany Increases Norwegian Imports

E.ON and its partners decided to close the Irsching 4 and 5 gas-fired power stations in Southern Germany from April 1, 2016. 

‘The decisions were made because the two CCGTs have no prospect of operating profitably when the current contract with the network operator expires in March 2016’ reads a joint press release of the consortium on Monday, referring to a contract between the owners and the network operator. 

Irsching 5 has a nameplate capacity of 846 megawatts and entered service in 2010. Irsching 4, which has a capacity of 550 megawatts and began operating one year later.

‘If the network operator prohibits the shutdowns by declaring the units to be system-relevant, Irsching 4 and 5 would be subject to the provisions of the German Ordinance on Reserve Power Plants’ the companies announced. 

GERMANY INCREASES GAS IMPORTS FROM NORWAY

Meanwhile, Norwegian gas exports registered a 7% increase over the weekend, positively impacting on UK’s gas storages. According to data from Gassco, Norway increased deliveries not only to Britain but also to Germany.

On Monday, the outage impacting on the output from Gudrun field has be resolved. At the moments, there are no unplanned events decreasing gas exports.

Data released by GIE showed that the UK is the only country in Europe, along with Italy, that increased stored gas over the last days.