* To be kept running as a reserve power plant – sources
* E.ON, grid operator, regulator decline to comment
FRANKFURT, April 25 (Reuters) – E.ON’s modern but
unprofitable Irsching gas-fired power station in Bavaria,
southern Germany, looks set to remain open as a reserve power
plant under a deal hammered out with regulators and politicians,
sources close to the talks said.
E.ON had said it could close the plant because of high gas
buying-in prices and low wholesale power prices. But the energy
network regulator believes the plant is crucial to the stability
of the power grid in the industry-heavy region.
The deal, which would see the plant guaranteed income as a
back-up source of electricity, could be a precedent for how
Germany ensures the survival of conventional power, whose
profitability has been hit by a boom in subsidised renewable
energy as the country phases out nuclear power.
“Ongoing operations (for Irsching) have been secured,” one
of the sources said on Thursday.
E.ON, power grid firm TenneT and the energy
network regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, declined to comment,
as did other shareholders in one of the Irsching blocks.
But E.ON sent around invitations for an event at the plant
on Friday, involving Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer and
E.ON Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen, without giving details.
Bavaria state’s chancellery did not respond immediately when
approached for a comment.
Last week, the Bundesnetzagentur said it aimed to help keep
Irsching’s units open.
E.ON has put the cost of operating the three year-old
Irsching 5, which has 846 MW of capacity, at 100 million euros
($130 million) a year. Under energy laws, it is not allowed to
unilaterally shut the plant.
Block 4, with 550 megawatts (MW) capacity in 2011, has also
seen its profitability wobble.
A huge E.ON nuclear reactor nearby at Grafenrheinfeld is
slated to shut in 2015 under the nuclear exit law.
The talks to keep Irsching open are focused on the methods
of funding it as a reserve plant, which will determine how much
will have to be paid out by TenneT and how much will be
recovered by a charge borne by consumers.
($1 = 0.7695 euros)
(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, Vera Eckert and Jens Hack;
Editing by Mark Potter)