E.ON plans to close down its combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in Malženice, Slovakia, effective October 2013.
E.ON plans to mothball its combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in Malženice, Slovakia, effective October 2013. It has made the decision because, it says, the CCGT can no longer operate profitably in the current market environment in Europe, mainly owing to low electricity and carbon prices.
E.ON describes these market conditions as the unmanaged, heavily subsidised growth of renewables and the resulting collapse of the EU emissions trading scheme which are rendering European gas-fired power plants – already hit by the recession-driven decline in power demand – largely uneconomic to operate. As announced at the beginning of this year, E.ON is restructuring its conventional generation fleet in ways that it says will swiftly improve the fleet’s competitiveness. Alongside further cost reductions and efficiency improvements, E.ON is considering whether to close a number of its power plants in Europe and will take decisive action in cases where closing proves necessary.
E.ON’s Malženice CCGT, which has a gross generating capacity of 430 MW, entered service in January 2011. In the past two and a half years it has only operated for about 5600 hours. The unit, whose fuel efficiency exceeds 58 %, was planned on the basis that it would operate for a minimum of 4,000 hours per year.