威力彩玩法

As Germany is experiencing an , with temperatures rising up to 40 degrees Celsius, some of the country鈥檚 conventional power stations are struggling to keep operations running.

The Grohnde and Brokdorf nuclear power plants in northern Germany have had to reduce their electricity production because cooling water temperatures were slightly too high.

The utility Energie Baden-W眉rttemberg AG (EnBW) had to shut down a hard coal-fired power plant in Karlsruhe because of increased water temperatures. If rivers from which most power stations draw their cooling water heat up to more than 28掳C, power stations are not permitted to empty warm water back into the river so as to not heat it up even more. Environmental organisations as they fear a if the water got any warmer,but power station operators have received s to enable them to keep their plants running even if water temperatures cross the 28掳C threshold.

Another utility, RWE, has a specific problem with its : because of the low water levels in the river Rhine, fuel deliveries via the river have been obstructed. 鈥淭he ships carry less coal than normally, so the plant operators have to calculate very carefully when it can be operated in accordance with market prices and demand,鈥� RWE spokesperson Guido Steffen told the 威力彩玩法.

Gas-fired power stations are also affected by the heat as they require cooling like other thermal plants, Steffen said. Two RWE gas turbine power stations in Dormagen and Lingen have been temporarily reducing their generation.

However, Georg Oppermann, spokesperson for energy company Uniper, told the 威力彩玩法 that the high price for natural gas and low power consumption levels during the summer holidays meant that most gas-fired plants weren鈥檛 running anyway. 鈥淲e are definitely not seeing a shortage in capacity, and in case of need our gas-fired plants would be ready, even if some of them couldn鈥檛 operate at full capacity.鈥�

Although it is hard to quantify the heat-related reduction of electricity generation across Germany because many power stations only curb generation partially and temporarily, there isn鈥檛 any concern for the power system as a whole. 鈥淲e鈥檙e on she safe side,鈥� a spokesperson of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) told the news agency dpa.

: UBA, 2018.

Energy consumption is low during the summer as people are on holiday and many companies cut back production. Most German households don鈥檛 have air conditioning systems, therefore room cooling devices are responsible for only 0.2 percent of an average private household鈥檚 energy consumption ().

Renewables could hold the fort during the heat wave 鈥� but so can lignite

Renewable energy sources could step into the breach where conventional energy supply falters in the heat, proponents of Germany鈥檚 energy transition 鈥� the dual shift away from nuclear power and fossil fuels to renewable energy 鈥� in recent days.

Solar power generation is particularly in the east of Germany, although extreme heat also lowers the panels鈥� performance slightly.

Germany鈥檚 predominantly pumped hydro stations are also currently unaffected by the heat wave, Vattenfall spokesperson Lutz Wiese told the 威力彩玩法. Vattenfall three out of seven gigawatts of installed hydro power capacity in Germany. Uniper, which another 2 GW of hydro power capacity in Germany, also says that nothing is out of the ordinary.

Battery storage facilities which could play an increasingly important role in a future energy system, are able to cope with heat because they all have air conditioning systems to maintain a constant temperature, Philip Hiersemenzel, spokesman at the Berlin-based battery system developer Younicos, told the 威力彩玩法. 鈥淥ur batteries are used around the world, also in places like Texas, where the temperatures that we have here at the moment are entirely common.鈥�

The only renewable energy source that has so far failed to hold the fort while conventional sources are struggling is wind power. The that is causing the heatwave in Germany is accompanied by very little wind, so electricity output from wind power has been very low since the beginning of the hot period, Uwe Maa脽en from the energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB) told the 威力彩玩法.

While wind and most conventional power sources struggle, one fossil fuel-based electricity supplier is running at full steam: 鈥�Lignite plants are not affected by cooling water issues because they source their water from the mines,鈥� Maa脽en explained. This could be borne out by the breakdown of Germany鈥檚 overall energy consumption by source in the second half of 2018.

: Bundesnetzagentur, SMARD, 2018.