Green megawatts
Major overhaul at the Bergkamen power plant: After a shutdown of only ten weeks, the Bergkamen hard coal-fired power plant is up and running again with more power output than before, at the same level of consumption and with less CO2 emissions.
The sounds of bustling activity reverberated throughout the plant, even though, or precisely because, actual operations had been temporarily shut down. The Bergkamen cooperative power plant has undergone complete modernization, which is why it was taken off the grid for ten weeks. This has been the most extensive overhaul since the plant originally commenced operations in 1981.
The total costs for this program to get the plant into the best possible shape exceed €50 million. Maintenance or upgrading is being carried out in every single area of operation, requiring a whole battalion of extra workers to help the 160 in-house employees at the plant get the job done. Some 650 external workers from nearly 40 different companies have been deployed on site at the plant.
Retrofitting for the sake of climate protection
Evonik has had an ambitious retrofitting program in place at its German hard coal-fired power plants since 2005 and is thus making a valuable contribution to the cause of climate protection. How, exactly? By modernizing our operations, we are raising the level of production efficiency, that is, using the same level of coal input to produce more power output. The concept has become known as “green megawatts.” Green, not least, because we are actually reducing the level of CO2 emissions even further.
In fact, the Bergkamen plant is cutting carbon emissions by as much as 180,000 metric tons p.a.—w hich is about the equivalent of the annual emissions produced by a town with a population of 50,000 through electricity consumption and heating alone. What’s more, power production at the Bergkamen plant has been raised by 30 megawatts—which is enough to provide energy supplies to almost 30,000 additional households.
Investing in the future
Aside from work on the turbines at the Bergkamen plant, the project involves two other areas of major focus. Given that the ceiling for sulfur dioxide is due to be reduced by January 2011, enhancements are being made to the flue-gas desulfurization system. And the instrumentation and control technology, which has served the plant for many years, is now being replaced, with Evonik opting to establish a single control center rather than the three separate ones installed to date.
