Irsching Power Station

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The Irsching located near the city Vohburg on the Danube and has a total of five power plant units. Base of Units 1 to 3, the combustion of natural gas or light fuel oil in a Feuerungskessel, of these three blocks is currently only the third block of 415 megawatts. In blocks 4 and 5 natural gas is burned in a combined cycle process.

History

The Irsching was built in the sixties and seventies on a site between Vohburg and Irsching. In 1969, the first block went with a capacity of 151 megawatts. In subsequent years, the blocks 2 and 3 were taken with outputs of 312 and 415 megawatts. Originally, the three blocks were for the combustion of heavy fuel oil from the nearby bayernoil refinery (then BP) interpreted. Over time, it was converted to the low-emission combustion of light fuel oil or natural gas. The power plant revealed to the commissioning of Isar 1, the base load of the networks of the Isar- Amper works. Meanwhile, Block 1 is completely shut down, block two is in cold reserve. Block 3 is sometimes used for peak load generation. Emerged with the new blocks 4 and 5, and to create modern facilities with good efficiencies by 60 %. Among other things in the system, the most powerful gas turbine in the world, Siemens SGT5 -8000H in operation.

On December 31, 1987, there was an incident when one of the two low-pressure turbines went during a cold start to break and a 1300 kg heavy part of the turbine rotor is 1.3 km far flung. Hurt no one was there. A part of the then destroyed wave is now exhibited in the power plant.

In 2008, only block 3 was operated with an electrical output of 415 MW. Block 1 with a former capacity of 150 MW is shut down. Block 2 with a capacity of 300 MW, is kept as cold reserve.

By 2008 an experimental gas turbine of the latest generation of Siemens Energy has been built on the site. The gas turbine of the type SGT5 -8000H was built as block 4 and supplemented after completion of the test series to a steam turbine to a full-fledged single-shaft combined-cycle power block. The efficiency is nominally 60.4 %; during a test run in May 2011, even 60.75 % were achieved, which Irschings block 4 one of the most efficient in the world. The commissioning of the power plant as referred Ulrich Hartmann block was made on September 15, 2011. In 2012, designed for at least 4000 hours per year plant was only 2000 hours on the net. The operation is valid given the low market power prices below cost.

Another combined cycle ( gas and steam ) power plant with two gas turbines and one steam turbine with an efficiency of 59.7 % was built as block 5 and went into operation in 2010. The chimneys of the old blocks are 200 meters high.

Block 5

The fifth block was of the Community Irsching GmbH ( CCI) built within two years and is operated by E.ON power plants GmbH. The block consists of two gas turbines and one steam turbine. The efficiency of the system is 59.7%, the electric power 860 MW. The power plant has been in operation since March 2010.

In addition to the E.ON power plants, the JSB the N- ERGY, Mainova and the HSE heard. You have invested around 400 million euros in Irsching 5.

In December 2012, Mainova, N- ERGY and HSE announced in a letter to the policy of wanting to shut down the block 5 for at least two years as a profitable operation is not possible at present. This was denied the next day by N- ERGY, there was no decision for decommissioning. Reason for the non-profitable operation is the changed situation in the electricity market. Through the development of renewable energy on the one hand and the sharp drop in electricity demand in southern Europe due to the euro crisis, electricity prices fell on the power exchange to a very low level, while the gas prices are significantly higher and the power plant operators are bound by fixed minimum quantities. In addition, the massive decline in prices of emission allowances in the EU emissions trading means that instead of gas power plants increased coal power plants are used and gas power plants are rarely needed.

E.ON announced at the Bavarian energy summit on 7 December 2012 that Irsching 5 is to be kept ready for use at least until March 2013, and until then a solution for the continued operation had to be found. In 2011, the power plant electricity produced in more than 4,000 hours, however, in 2012 there were only about 1,600 hours of operation (as of early November 2012).

In March 2013, the Bavarian Economics Minister Martin Zeil ( FDP ) said Irsching 5 would remain for reasons of grid stability definitely in operation, if necessary against the will of the operator. At the same time it was critical towards the power plant operators, unsettled in his opinion the public in order to build pressure on the government.

In April 2013 called Eon boss John Teyssen 100 million from the state to keep the power plant permanently in operation.

Environmental impact

Modern combined-cycle power plants as blocks 4 and 5 are among the most efficient fossil fuel power plants. Due to the high efficiency and the associated good fuel efficiency and the use of natural gas as fuel, the carbon dioxide emissions are compared with coal-fired plants at relatively low levels. This amount, for example, at block 4, which currently holds the world record for gas-fired plants without combined heat and power with 60.4 % efficiency, at just over 330 grams of CO2 per kWh. Thus, the emissions are only about one third of a lignite-fired power plant, but also significantly higher than for electricity generation from renewable energy sources such as wind power or photovoltaics.

Data of the power plant units

Information from sources

Mains connection

The mains connection of the blocks 3 to 5 is performed on the 380 - kV high- voltage level in the power grid of the transmission system operator TenneT TSO.