Styrian coal-fired power plant is not being ramped up after all

“We currently have other priorities,” said Minister Leonore Gewessler on Thursday at a biomass congress in Graz from ORF-Styria when asked about reactivation. Other measures have been taken and are well prepared for the winter. However, the planned reactivation had not found a parliamentary majority either.

In the summer, the climate protection minister from the Greens announced that the Mellach coal-fired power plant should be reactivated due to an impending gas shortage. “The plan was to implement it for this winter. The SPÖ did not agree to this proposal. Thank God, through other measures, we managed to be in a situation where we can say that security of supply is guaranteed.” , said Gewessler according to ORF. So now the matter is off the table. A spokesman for the politician was initially unavailable for the APA.

The domestic gas storage facilities are currently 87 percent full. This corresponds to 83 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas. The supply situation has been secured, for example, by the high storage level at the beginning of winter and the high temperatures for the time of year, it was said on Thursday at a background discussion by Austria Gas Grid Management (AGGM) on the sidelines of the Austrian Gas Infrastructure Day in Vienna.

A high storage level after the winter is still “fundamental” in terms of security of supply, it said. Replacing Russian gas is a “huge challenge”, especially when storage levels are low.

With a view to the coming winter, AGGM also said with a view to winter 2023/24 and the storage refilling planned by then: “With the currently available transport capacities from Germany and Italy, sufficient diversification of the supply sources for gas is not possible and the storage target of 90 percent cannot be achieved” if no gas comes to the important East Austrian hub in Baumgarten and exports to neighboring countries continue as in 2022.