German power utility E.ON plans to take two of its gas-fired power plants in the country, Irsching 5 and Irsching 4, offline citing reasons of unprofitability.
The ownership consortium for the Irsching 5, including E.ON, HSE, Mainova, and N-ERGIE, has notified the German Federal Network Agency and network operator TenneT about shutting down the plant.
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Similar notification for shutting down the Irsching 4 plant has been forwarded to the German Federal Network Agency by its sole owner E.ON.
Both the facilities are equipped with combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT), which are expected to stop functioning by April 2016, the German firm informed.
While the Irsching 5 plant has a generation capacity of 846MW, the Irsching 4 can supply 550MW of power.
Irsching 5 and the Irsching 4 were commissioned in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Over the last two years, the facilities had been operating under contracts formed by the owners with their respective network operators, which is scheduled to expire in March next year.
The contract classifies costs either on the basis of the merchant power supply capability of the units or if they transmit power to the network operator.
The rise in subsidised renewables feed-in and reduction of wholesale power prices have affected the profitability of the units. In 2014, the units have supplied no merchant power at all.
E.ON and the other owners do not want to go for contract renewals, and have come up with the shutdown notices to avoid operating the facilities at loss.
