11/22/2016, 10:00
| Media release
Lausanne – In mid-November, Stadtwerke Kiel gave the go-ahead for the construction of a pioneering gas engine cogeneration plant and commissioned the general contractor Kraftanlagen München (KAM) with the implementation. The cooperation contracts were signed back in August 2015. The power station is scheduled to be connected to the grid in the autumn of 2018. With this project, KAM demonstrates its expertise for innovative power station projects.
On 11 November 2016, Stadtwerke Kiel, the German city of Kiel’s public utility company, gave the definitive go-ahead for the construction of the gas engine cogeneration plant. Relying on Jenbacher gas engines from GE, the Alpiq subsidiary Kraftanlagen München will implement the construction project in the role of general contractor. The contracts for the project were signed on 3 August 2015. The construction of the new power station involves a total investment volume of approximately 290 million euro, of which a significant proportion will cover services provided by KAM. As of autumn 2018, the power station will supply the city of Kiel with electricity and district heating. The project sets new standards in terms of flexibility, efficiency and ecological sustainability.
With the award of the contract for this innovative power station project, Kraftanlagen München once again demonstrates its outstanding expertise for the project management, planning and construction of efficient cogeneration plants and rapidly regulatable power stations. What is so pioneering about the power station in Kiel is the concept of combining cutting-edge gas engines with state-of-the-art storage technology, in order to enable electricity and heat to be generated with the utmost flexibility. For Kiel, this is a particularly important factor, because the region’s high proportion of fluctuating wind power means that the public utility company requires a power station that can be rapidly regulated at short notice, as a replacement for its coal-fired power plant that has been in operation since 1970.
The pioneering power plant with an output of 190 MW combines 20 gas engines, each with an output of 9.5 MW. The gas engines can reach their nominal output in less than five minutes, each engine is individually regulatable and designed for several power-ups per day. In addition, the system will generate up to 192 MW of heat, which will either be fed into the city of Kiel's public district heating system, or stored during periods of low demand. Thus, the modern power station fulfils the highest requirements regarding flexibility, utilisation ratio and environmental friendliness. The innovative plant is an exemplary solution for the challenges of the energy turnaround. Already during the planning phase, Stadtwerke Kiel was awarded two innovation prizes for the impressive concept.