Agreement on nuclear power plant deployment reserve: EnBW supports German government efforts for secure energy supplies

Karlsruhe. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs today presented detailed key terms for the possible continued operation of nuclear power plants Neckarwestheim II (GKN II) and Isar 2. These were agreed following intensive talks between the Federal Ministry and power plant operators EnBW and PreussenElektra (E.ON).

EnBW – the operator of GKN II – contributed here with its longstanding experience and expertise, supporting the German government’s efforts for secure energy supplies in Germany.

With regard to GKN II, the key terms agreed between the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and the operators essentially comprise the following:

• EnBW is to begin preparations for a possible continuation of electricity generation with GKN II beyond 31 December 2022 and up to no later than 15 April 2023.
• The German government will decide by no later than the beginning of December 2022 whether energy generation by this means will be required in 2023 in order to ensure security of supply in Germany. The government will then subject the decision to request electricity generation using GKN II to a second review at the beginning of January 2023.
• GKN II will definitely shut down on 31 December 2022. If the German government decides that it is necessary to continue electricity generation, the plant’s reactor core will be reassembled with existing, partially spent fuel elements in order, by means of this optimisation process, to guarantee the generation of up to 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity after restarting the reactor.
• › In the event of such operation, the high standards of safety at GKN will continue to be maintained without change, and to be independently monitored by the competent supervisory authority and experts acting on its behalf.
• EnBW has undertaken to invest any profits generated by such operation in specific measures relating to energy transition. If there is no request to use GKN II in the deployment reserve, or the costs incurred cannot be met out of the revenue from its operation, the losses will be compensated for by the state.

A precondition for this deployment reserve to be implemented in conditions of legal certainty is for the Federal Ministry to promptly launch the legislative process providing the basis for related contractual agreements.

Georg Stamatelopoulos, Chief Operating Officer Sustainable Generation Infrastructure at EnBW: “For us as an energy company, the agreement now reached with the German government is very challenging to implement. It means that we will have to rework all measures prepared for the planned year-end phase-out in the direction of safe and reliable continued operation in a deployment reserve. At the same time, as we have always emphasised, EnBW always contributes to the security of energy supplies in Germany to the best of its abilities. In doing so, we can rely on our extremely professional and experienced team. We believe that the agreement reached permits a fair solution as regards the spectrum of economic risks and potential returns. For these then to be consistently invested in the energy transition is in the best interest of climate change mitigation and security of supply.”