Germany to activate old power plants during winter

Germany is to activate elderly electricity plants this winter to use as reserve generating capacity, dpa cited Chancellor Angela Merkel as saying Friday after talks with state premiers. The move is necessary because Germany's ambitious plan to close down its nuclear power reactors by 2022 and replace them with wind, solar and fossil-fuelled plants has left it potentially short of electricity at times of high demand. Last winter, outmoded oil and coal plants in Germany and Austria were activated to meet peak demand. The same may happen again. However, utilities demand premiums to keep the inefficient plants on stand-by. "The Federal Networks Agency has told us that there will be 2.5 gigawatts of reserve capacity. It will be essentially in the south of the republic, because that is where the greatest uncertainty has come about through the switch-off of nuclear power plants," said Merkel. Germany has already decommissioned eight nuclear reactors, mainly in the south. Nine remain. It still has not built enough wind turbines, some offshore, and new transmission lines to replace the lost capacity. The 16 states have squabbled over the timetable. Merkel said after meeting the state premiers at her office that they were committed to settling such differences. "Today I sensed a spirit that we want to achieve this, and perhaps we can," said Merkel. Christine Lieberknecht, premier of Thuringia state, who chaired a preliminary meeting of the premiers, said: "The unity of the 16 states has been added to the unity of the federal government, and that means overall unity in Germany." Merkel led Germans last year to a national consensus to abolish nuclear power by an act of parliament. The partial meltdowns of three reactors at Fukushima, Japan after a tsunami hit prompted the decision. Formerly one quarter of German power was nuclear-generated.