According to analysts' estimates, it pays off for energy companies to restart power plants due to the high price of electricity and sufficient quantities of coal on the global market.

In Germany, as part of gas-saving measures, the first already shut down coal-fired power plant is being put back into operation, the Federal Network Agency reported on Monday.

The Mehrum power plant in Lower Saxony, owned by the Czech group EPH, is the first power plant to be reactivated after the federal government adopted legal changes in mid-July allowing the reactivation of already shut down coal and oil power plants until the end of next year, when a high degree of independence from gas from Russia is expected to be achieved.

The Mehrum power plant ceased operations in December last year and is part of the so-called energy reserve whose activation is possible in case of emergency.

According to the management of this 690-megawatt power plant, electricity production can begin “at any moment”.

The goal of returning coal-fired power plants is to reduce gas consumption. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party FDP) believes that instead of being used for electricity production, gas must be saved for households and industry in the coming winter.

“We must not allow the gas crisis to turn into an electricity supply crisis,” Lindner said over the weekend. Lindner, like the Christian Democratic opposition, is also calling for the remaining three nuclear power plants to remain in operation.

Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) believes that gas should be abandoned in electricity production “wherever possible”.

In 2018, as part of the long-term fight against climate change, the previous government made a decision to completely phase out coal as an energy source by 2038 at the latest.

Companies operating other coal-fired power plants have also announced the start-up of their facilities.

According to analysts' estimates, it pays off for energy companies to restart power plants due to the high price of electricity and sufficient quantities of coal on the global market.

As part of the same political program, a decision was also made to shut down nuclear power plants.

The last three nuclear power plants still in operation are supposed to cease operations by the end of the year, but intensive discussions are currently underway to extend their operation until next year.

The opposition is demanding that, until the pressure on gas supply eases, the three nuclear power plants that were shut down last year also be brought back into operation.

Source: poslovni.hr