German, Austrian power capacity up 4.5pc to Jan 6

30 Dec, 2011

The EEX on its website issues transparency data from German generators, grid operators and small plants as well as live production forecasts. In July, it added data from a majority of Austrian power plant operators.

It now has information on installed capacity amounting to just under 80,000 MW in the centre of Europe, where Germany accounts for the bulk of electricity generation.

A snapshot view on Friday showed operators reporting to the exchange see available capacity rising to 66,631 MW up to Jan. 6, compared with 63,750 MW recorded as available on Dec. 30.

Over the next seven days, the operators in the region will add 995 MW of brown coal fired, 1,920 MW of hard coal fired and 227 MW of gas fired capacity, if their current intentions materialise.

Hydroelectricity availability from run-of-river, pumped storage and seasonal storage facilities is likely to fall by 366 MW.

Nuclear power capacity will be just over 12,000 MW, with all plants left to operate after the country's part-withdrawal in the summer presently on-line.

Operators were required to leave off-line permanently eight suspended reactors or 41 percent of the previous total, and shut the remainder over the next 11-12 years as part of a political strategy shift. This causes some permanent regional tightness.

Looking at operators' plans to gauge availability over the next month, the website showed capacity should increase by 7.4 percent over Friday's level to stand at 68,444 MW on Jan. 27.

Copyright Reuters, 2011

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