The halting of power generation from the plants follows the federal government’s directives to reduce green house emissions.
The decision to phase out the power plants is a part of a deal signed between the German Ministry of Economy and lignite operators under the country’s climate protection action program.
As per the deal, which intends to reduce lignite power capacity by 2,700MW until 2020, the plant operators will receive approximately €230m annually over seven years, as compensation for phasing out the facilities.
Within this framework, Vattenfall will halt F and E units of the Jänschwalde lignite power plant in 2018 and 2019. The units are expected to be in standby mode until complete closure scheduled in 2022/2023.
Vattenfall president and CEO Magnus Hall said: "The agreement also addresses the concern for security of supply and provides more certainty for the conditions of the remaining lignite business in Lusatia. This is important also for the divestment process."
The Germany’s lignite industry is expected to contribute for the government’s climate protection action program which targets a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas by 2020 as compared to the 1990 level.
The deal also includes other German utilities including RWE and Mibrag to halt power generation from some of their coal-fired facilities from winter 2016.
RWE will shift capacity from two units at Frimmersdorf, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in October 2017, following which two more units will be moved to standby mode at Niederaussem in 2018 and one at Neurath in 2019.
Image: The Jänschwalde power station in Germany. Photo: courtesy of Ra Boe/ Wikipedia.
