Uniper turns to coal ahead of Nord Stream's closure
Finnish-Germany utility Uniper said August 23 it planned to restart its mothballed 875-MW Heyden-4 coal-fired power plant to compensate for a three-day suspension in gas flow via Nord Stream 1 at the end of this month.
Heyden-4 will be switched on August 29 and could potentially remain active until April-end next year, though electricity production will initially be restrained by railway capacity for trains carrying hard coal to the production site. Uniper expects power generation to rise once coal deliveries can be ramped up.
Gazprom will suspend gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 from August 31 until September, causing disruption at a time when European countries are scrambling to stock up on gas ahead of winter. The company has said the closure is necessary to carry out maintenance at the last working compressor unit at Portovaya compressor station.
Even if maintenance ends as planned, Nord Stream 1 will only operate at 20% of its 55bn m3/year capacity, as is the case now, assuming Gazprom does not find "malfunctions" to excuse a false start.
It is particularly bad news for the embattled Uniper, which has battled to stave off financial distress as a result of cuts to Russian supply and soaring spot gas prices in Europe, which have now risen above $3,000/'000 m3.
The decision to bring Heyden-4 back into operation can be revoked at four weeks' notice, Uniper said. Because Berlin has initiated the "alert level" of its gas emergency contingency plan, Heyden-4 is permitted to produce coal within Germany's energy transition framework. It will be closed again if the government decides the severity of the emergency has receded, Uniper said.
Uniper closed Heyden-4 down at the start of last year in line with its net zero strategy, which envisages carbon neutrality by 2035. A week before the scheduled closure, Heyden-4 was classified by German regulators as "systemically relevant" allowing it to remain on standby to protect security of supply. Heyden-4 has since been deployed as a reserve power plant, but has not produced any electricity for the market since 2020-end.