|
24 August 2007 - Germany's biggest power generator RWE and Swiss power company Energie Ouest Suisse has agreed to exchange hydroelectric and coal-fired power from 1 January 2009 for ten years, they said in separate statements.
Through this exchange both companies said they expected to further optimize their economic positions with respect to base- and peak load generation.
RWE is to supply about 1 TWh of electricity from hard coal-fired power plants per year. The companies said the advantages of the plan included the avoidance of bottlenecks and the efficient use of generation capacities.
RWE's trading arm and Lausanne-based EOS have agreed they can exchange coal-fired base load power produced by RWE Power, the company's generation arm, for hydroelectric peak load generation by EOS.
The exchange will be for the next day, will take place on a virtual basis and will be based on long-term parameters. This way, RWE Power has short-term, flexible access to peak load power, which the company would otherwise have to buy on the market, the companies said.
The same applies to EOS, which has short-term access to next-day coal-generated base load and then, in return, can supply peak load to RWE.
Johannes Lambertz, the RWE Power board member responsible for fossil fuel-fired power plants, said: "The logistic advantages of the coal-fired base load power production at RWE locations and the high degree of flexibility offered by hydroelectric power generation in the Alpine countries complement each other really well."
The generation arm of the Essen-based utility relies on a broad mix of energy sources: lignite coal from surface mining in the Rhineland and nuclear energy for base load, hard coal, gas and renewable energies such as water and biomass for middle and peak load.
Some 85 per cent of the EOS Group's capacity comes from hydroelectric power. RWE rival E.ON Ruhrgas said Wednesday it had agreed on a six-year supply contract with Swiss gas company Erdgas Ostschweiz (EGO) that covers an annual gas supply of 3 bn kWh until 2013, or 30 per cent of the gas demand of the eastern part of Switzerland.
| 
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
