Flexible CHP with storage for Stuttgart-Gaisburg

MAN Diesel & Turbo is building a 30 MW gas fuelled piston engine based combined heat and power plant for German utility EnBW at its Stuttgart-Gaisburg site. The plant will be powered by three MAN 20V35/44G gas engines and in addition to its electrical output will also provide up to 30 MW of district heating.

The power station project is part of the comprehensive modernisation of the Stuttgart-Gaisburg site. Alongside the CHP plant, EnBW will be building a heat storage facility and a boiler system with a thermal output of up to 210 MW to enable peak and reserve shaving. The existing coal power station is to be decommissioned. The new installations will be operational by the end of 2018.

EnBW placed an order with MAN Diesel & Turbo for the plant in July 2016. However, the final decision to go ahead with the project was only taken after approval and clearance by the German government and the European Commission with regard to CHP subsidy legislation. “With the new German CHP act passing into law, there is finally legal certainty again for power-plant investors in Germany”, said Tilman Tütken, VP, MAN Diesel & Turbo, and European head of sales, power plants.

“Large-scale gas reciprocating engine power plants are a relatively new technology for the German market but one that has significant benefits for operators, especially in energy systems handling large quantities of fluctuating renewable energy”, notes Tütken. Such engines can reach maximum output in considerably less than five minutes and can also cope with rapid load changes.

The Gaisburg project is using MAN D&T’s modular CHP power plant concept, which can be scaled up from 7 MW as required.

Kiel under construction

Final clarity on German CHP subsidy arrangements under the new law similarly enabled Stadtwerke Kiel’s management board to ”green light” construction of its 190 MWe/192 MWt piston engine based cogeneration facility, employing no less than 20 GE Jenbacher J920 FleXtra gas engines. The facility, for which the general contractor is Kraftanlagen München (KAM), also includes a boiler and thermal storage, as at EnBW’s Stuttgart-Gaisburg site, and also aims to be operational in 2018.