Uniper Extends Irsching-5 Closure Again

German utility Uniper has told the gas and power grids regulator BNetzA that it is extending the closure of its state-of-the-art gas-fired 846-MW Irsching-5 power plant until October 2021, it said September 25.

Despite the low price at Europe's gas hubs and the rising cost of carbon emission trading certificates, "for highly efficient gas-fired power plants, there is still no suitable framework for economic continued operation beyond autumn 2020. The owners are therefore reaffirming their commitment to provisionally decommission the power plant from October 2020 to the end of September 2021. In parallel – and for the same reasons – Uniper, as the sole owner of the Irsching 4 gas-fired power plant, also announced the temporary closure of this block from October 2020 to the end of September 2021."

In April 2018, the owners – Uniper (50.2%), N-ergie (25.2%), Mainova (15.6%) and Entega (9%) – said there was no way to ensure the plant’s commercial viability into early 2019 and were therefore announcing the temporary closure of the plant from May 2019 through the end of September 2020. 

With an efficiency of 59.7%, Irsching is one of the most modern gas-fired power plants in Europe. Irsching 4 is 561 MW and went into operation in 2011 with an efficiency of 60.4%. The two power plant units fall under the so-called grid reserve regulation. They are only used when their power is needed to stabilise the network. This is the case when the network in southern Germany has to be supported because of temporary bottlenecks.