The German energy utility Uniper has announced that it will permanently shut down the 875 MW Heyden-4 coal-fired power plant, located in Petershagen (north-western Germany), on 30 September 2024. Uniper had originally made the decision to close the coal-fired unit at the end of 2020. After the grid operator TenneT did not notify the German Federal Network Agency by the end of August 2023 of an extension beyond September 2024, the decommissioning is now final.
The Heyden 4 coal power plant, commissioned in 1987, had ceased commercial operations in late 2020, but returned to the market from the grid reserve in August 2022 on the basis of a law passed by Germany to insure power supply in the context of the war in Ukraine. This ordinance allows the plant to run until 31 March 2024 and to be available to the system operator as a grid reserve power plant until 30 September 2024.
As of end-2022, coal represented about 17% of Germany’s installed capacity with nearly 40 GW, and 33% of its power generation with more than 190 TWh. The country plans to phase out of coal-fired generation by 2030.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.