German utility Uniper is set to permanently shut down its 875MW Heyden 4 hard coal-fired power plant in Petershagen town, near the Minden district in Germany, on 30 September next year.

By the end of 2020, Uniper had decided to decommission the plant as part of Germany’s plan to lower emissions.

The power plant once again came online in August 2022 amid an energy crisis after an ordinance enabled the plant to generate electricity for the market until March of next year.

On 1 June 2021, German regulator Bundesnetzagentur deemed the plant to be "systemically relevant". However, until August 2023, grid operator TenneT did not notify the Federal Network Agency about extending the determination of system relevance beyond next September.

Hence, the power plant’s decommissioning has now been finalised.

Uniper chief operating officer Holger Kreetz said: “Our employees at the Heyden 4 power plant have been making an important contribution to the security of supply in northern and western Germany since 1987.

“Electricity has been generated at the site itself since 1951. The now final decommissioning in autumn 2024 is a consistent step both for the Federal Republic of Germany's exit from coal-fired power generation and in the context of the transformation of Uniper's portfolio.

“Uniper will phase out coal-fired power generation by 2029 – eight years earlier than previously planned. By 2030, we aim to have a European power generation portfolio totalling 15–20GW.”

Last year, besides Heyden 4, the company also brought the 510MW Staudinger 5 hard coal-fired power plant back into operation.