Mátra Power Plant

F2

• 2 × 100 MW lignite
• 1 × 212 MW lignite
• 2 × 232 MW lignite
• 2 × 33 MW natural gas VGT

• RWE Power ( 50.9 %)
• MVM ( 25.5%)
• EnBW ( 21.7%)

The power plant Matra (Hungarian: Mátrai Erőmű, also (heat) power plant Visonta, Gyöngyös or Gagarin called ) is a lignite-fired power plant near the town of Visonta in the small area Gyöngyös east of the city Gyöngyös at the foot of the Matra Mountains, Hungary.

Supplied with fuel, it is by conveyor belts directly from the south adjacent mining Visonta and by rail from the 60 km eastern mining Bükkábrány. In addition to lignite, biomass is fed fires and to a lesser extent.

The power plant is after the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, the second largest power plant in Hungary; it provides about 15% of the Hungarian electricity production. Because of its size and because it does not depend on imported fuels, but is fully supplied from local resources, the Matra power plant is considered an important pillar of the national energy supply in Hungary.

The chimney is with its height of 203 meters one of the ten tallest structures in Hungary.

History and organization

With the construction of the power plant was started in 1965. Initially it was called the thermal power plant Gyöngyös (Hungarian: Hőerőmű Gyöngyös ). Even during construction, 1968, it was in honor of recently killed in an accident Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin nicknamed Gagarin. In 1969, the power plant with the first 100 MW unit in operation. By 1972, the plant was expanded to five blocks, of which 2 × 100 MW and 3 × 200 MW.

The condenser cooling for the blocks I, II, IV and V via two natural draft wet cooling towers - (pictured center), for the Block III two forced ventilation tower cooler with film cooling (right ). Since cold water at the site is almost - there is no greater flow - through the cooling towers of circulation.

Between 1986 and 1992 the system was first modernized.

In 1992, the plant was privatized with the associated surface mines and it was under the name Mátrai Erőmű ( German: Matra power plant ) is a Closed Joint Stock Company ( CJSC, Hungarian: Zrt. ) Was founded. Principal owner was initially the Hungarian state-owned utility Magyar Villamos Művek (MVM ). A short time later, in 1993, Brown RWE Rhein rose with one and initially acquired a minority stake of 26.5%. In 1995, the RWE share was increased to 51 %, so that RWE was the majority shareholder. At the same time, EnBW increased a 22%. The rest remained with MVM ( 25.5 %) and other ( 1%).

It was followed by a more comprehensive renovation and modernization between 1998 and 2003, when the next performance-enhancing measures and a flue gas cleaning system was retrofitted with desulfurization. Matra equivalent since the western environmental standards and is one of the most environmentally friendly coal-fired power plants in Eastern Europe.

Between 2005 and 2007, two of the 200 - MW units were equipped with a Vorschaltgasturbine, which provide up to 33 megawatts capacity and also increased the performance of the coal block by about 10% through improved efficiency, so that overall for the power plant to increase power by about 100 MWe revealed.

Since a long time there are plans for a significant expansion of the power plant: a new modern lignite block with 400 MWe capacity to be built by 2014. In this context, the proportion of biomass is to be increased on the fuel of the total power plant. Due to the unclear allocation of CO2 allowances, the realization of the project is not saved. The financing of the new building is not fixed yet. Expected MVM will be involved to 75% and the Matra power plants GAG, the operator of the existing power plant with 25%.