Vattenfall, Total Look to Expand Gas Use

Siemens said May 3 it has received an order from Swedish state power generator Vattenfall to build a gas-fired cogeneration plant in the Marzahn district of Berlin. Neither company disclosed the contract value.

Due to begin operation in 2020, it will be able to generate 260 MWe (electricity) while also supplying east Berlin with 230 MW of district heating as steam, and so should help lower the German capital's carbon dioxide emissions. The order includes a long-term service agreement for the gas turbine-generator set, to be built in Berlin.

Under its national climate action plan, Germany has committed to increase the share produced by combined heat and power (CHP, or co-gen) plants to 25% of its total electricity production by 2025, which has led to some recent contract awards. 

In late 2016 Finland’s Wartsila was contracted to build a gas-fired CHP that will provide 100 MWe power and up to 96 MW heat for utility Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden (KMW) for start-up late 2018, the first of its size to be built in Germany by the Finnish company. And in early 2016, Siemens handed over a newbuilt gas-fired CCGT contract from Stadtwerke Dusseldorf that achieved 603.8 MW power, and can deliver up to 300 MWth of district heating.

Update as of May 4: Vattenfall has told NGW that it will invest some €325mn in the new Berlin-Marzahn CHP. It added that a CCGT at Berlin-Lichterfelde -- awarded to Spain's Iberdrola Engineering in 2013 and originally to have been built by late 2016 -- is still under construction; its capacity is 300 MWe and 230 MWth.

Vattenfall to expand in UK

Vattenfall said May 2 it will begin marketing renewable electricity to UK business customers starting May 2017, despite the country’s impending exit from the EU of which Sweden is a member. In large part, that’s because Vattenfall is a major UK offshore wind electricity generator. It has invested nearly £3bn ($3.9bn) in the UK and will, from 2018, operate over 1 gigawatt of installed wind capacity there.

Total to buy Dutch NGVs supplier

Total said May 3 it is acquiring the Dutch company PitPoint, which it says is Europe’s third largest provider of natural gas vehicle (NGV) fuel. It did not say how much it was paying.

PitPoint has a network of around 100 natural gas fueling stations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The acquisition will enable Total to implement its plans to establish a network of 350 JGV filling stations in Europe by 2022. Total already has a network of 450 NGV filling stations worldwide, of which about 100 in Europe. It also markets compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles in Egypt and Pakistan. 

Mark Smedley