Coal Phase-out Act: RWE Power takes first plant off grid – Unit D in Niederaussem
Decommissioning Unit D will mean a loss of about 300 jobs in the overall lignite process chain from sourcing the raw material in opencast mines to operating and maintaining the power station. By the end of 2022, by which time RWE will have taken 2.8 gigawatts of power station capacity out of the system, this figure will rise to about 3,000 jobs. By 2030, as much as two-thirds of RWE’s lignite-based power station capacity will have been decommissioned, affecting 6,000 jobs in total. The collective agreement concluded at the end of August will ensure there are no redundancies, and that the decommissioning process will be socially cushioned.
During the first few years of the process, RWE will bear the brunt of the exit from lignite in Germany. In addition, RWE will terminate hard-coal generation in Germany on 31 December after winning the tender at the first nationwide decommissioning auction for hard-coal power plants for the 800-megawatt Unit E at Kraftwerk Westfalen power station in Hamm and the 800-megawatt Unit B at Kraftwerk Ibbenbüren power station. At the same time, the company is continuing to push ahead with the expansion of renewable energies.
“The fact Unit D has operated reliably in generating electricity for so many years is down to professional management and a well thought-out and successful maintenance programme – and thus also the commitment by the entire team,” emphasises RWE Power management board member Dr Lars Kulik.
Since it was first put into service on 1 May 1968, Unit D has operated for 390,000 hours and generated more than 115 billion kilowatt hours of electricity using 129 million tonnes of lignite. In purely arithmetic terms, that would be enough to supply all electricity consumers in Düsseldorf for almost 30 years. Decommissioning the unit will result in a reduction in carbon emissions of about 2.5 million tonnes per year.
Effective October 2019, five other 300 MW units belonging to RWE have been out of full-time operation but have each been retained on standby for a four-year period. Depending on when the standby arrangement began in each case, these will be definitively decommissioned in October 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.
RWE Power AG, with headquarters in Essen and Cologne, Germany, is a company of the RWE Group. Its business is lignite-based and nuclear power generation. The Company employs about 11,000 people and operates three opencast lignite mines in the Rhineland area. Lignite production is predominantly used for electricity generation in the Company’s own power stations, but is also processed to make solid fuels and filter materials. In addition, RWE Power manages the operation, decommissioning and dismantling of RWE’s nuclear facilities. The Company’s power stations supply the grid with an overall capacity of around 13 gigawatts.
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