German CHP Tender Draws Competitive Bids

Germany’s federal network agency (Bundesnetzagentur, or BNA) last week awarded its first regular tender for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems; it was oversubscribed.

Describing the first tender as a "success", BNA president Jochen Homann said a high degree of competition led to a relatively low average premium being paid to generators of 4.05 eurocents per kilowatt-hour (4.76 US cents/kWh) which nonetheless was “enough to support cost-efficient CHP power supplies.” 

It accepted seven bids for a total bid volume of 82 megawatts, it announced December 8, out of 20 bids submitted for a total volume of 225 MW. The lowest bid was 3.19 eurocents/kWh, while the highest to have been accepted was 4.99 eurocents/kWh. The tender was for CHP plants of between 1 and 50 MW.

Only 82 megawatts were accepted despite a tender volume being nominally for 100 MW, because BNA said if it had accepted the next bid then it would have significantly exceeded that 100 MW limit. 

Since the law was changed in Germany mid-2017, CHP plants of 1 to 50 MW are no longer be subsidised by a fixed amount, but may participate in a tender every six months.

Uniper said December 12 its bid for a 30.5 MWe CHP unit at Marl in the Ruhr region was accepted; it already has a unit there, but has the option of building a second plant at Marl of the same size by end-2021. It was the only one of the four big German generators named among the winning bids.

The six other accepted bids came from: Dortmunder Energie (DEW), Rheinenergie, Ahrtal-Werke, and the city utilties (Stadtwerke) of Riesa, Strausberg and Tubingen - and were for locally based CHP plants in Rheinenergie's case in Cologne, and in Ahrtal's case at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, near Bonn.  Rheinenergie is 80% owned by Cologne-based GEW Koln, which in turn is controlled by Stadtwerke Koln.