E.ON has notified the German energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNA) of its plans to shut down two CCGT units at its Irsching gas-fired CCGT power plant in Vohburg (Bayern, Germany), due to low wholesale electricity prices making the plants' operation no longer profitable. E.ON plans to retire the units as of 1 April 2016. Irsching-4 is a 550 MW CCGT unit commissioned in 2011, fully-owned by E.ON, while the 846 MW Irsching-5 CCGT unit (commissioned in 2010) is owned by a consortium consisting of E.ON, HSE, Mainova, and N-ERGIE. Both units have operated during the past two years under a contract between the owners and the network operator, that will expire in March 2016. The plants supplied no merchant power at all in 2014 and were only used to stabilise the southern Germany grid at a price only covering operational costs. If the BNA rejects the shutdown, the plants will be subject to the provisions of the German Ordinance on Reserve Power Plants (Reservekraftwerksverordnung). E.ON already mothballed 415 MW Irsching-3 in 2013.
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