BERLIN (Reuters) - Major German power utility EnBW, a likely bidder in auctions for building initially gas-fired generation capacity under a new government scheme, could draw on its existing plant sites, its chief executive told Reuters this week.
The company, alongside sector peers Uniper and RWE (LON:0HA0), is tipped to be among those responding to the long-awaited roadmap laying out details of a possibly 40 billion euro ($43.6 billion) plan to avoid power shortages caused by volatile renewable generation, once coal is abandoned.
Sources told Reuters that the strategy is taking shape on Thursday as senior policymakers are talking to big players.
The plan entails state-support for perhaps 20-25 gigawatts of electricity-producing capacity by 2035, which will either be new stations or old ones that are converted, and which are made ready for clean hydrogen operations in the long term.
"We have existing locations where the infrastructure, such as grid connections or cooling towers, are already in place and grid feed-in points are available, which simplifies construction and conserves resources," said Chief Executive Andreas Schell.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a Handelsblatt conference in Germany's capital, Schell referred to fuel switch projects at hand in the company's south-western business region.
New gas-to-power stations are under construction at the Heilbronn and Altbach/Deizisau locations, using cooling towers and water purification from legacy coal burning.
At the Stuttgart-Muenster power station, which co-fires with waste, the coal boiler is being replaced with gas turbines.
"In Heilbronn, Stuttgart-Muenster and Altbach, the local councils were positively disposed towards the issue," Schell said.
Unlike opposing infrastructure, a typical hindrance to energy projects in Germany, local residents were accustomed to the sight of a power plant, he said.
"And that is why a new building on the company premises was generally well received."
The three sites are receiving 1.5 GW capacity costing 1.6 billion euros.
EnBW in 2019 also partly newly-equipped a heat-to-power plant at Stuttgart-Gaisburg with gas engines.
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