Germany was forced to draw on its reserves for producing electricity Wednesday for the second time this winter as Europe is gripped by a severe cold snap.
Germany
was forced
to draw on its reserves for producing electricity Wednesday for the second time
this winter as
Europe
is gripped by a severe cold snap.
The country's four main power operators requested the reserve generator at a
coal-powered plant in southern
Germany
and
two plants in
Austria
be
activated, the regional environment ministry in the southern state of
Baden-Wuerttemberg said.
The power station in
Germany
, in
the southern city of
Mannheim
,
would continue to be used Thursday, a spokesman said.
"We do not have a problem of supply, of quantity, it's principally a
question of stabilizing the network," a spokeswoman for the
Germany
electricity market regulator said.
Germany
also
had to tap its reserves in early December. The system was set up in August to
avoid shortages and stabilize the network for the country's winter power
provision.
Under the reserve plan, five generators in
Germany
have
been designated, which are powered by coal or gas and normally not in
operation, as well as several in neighboring
Austria
.
They can be used only at the request of the electricity network operators in
case of need or as a preventive step.
In the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in
Japan
last
March, which prompted radiation to leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant,
Germany
decided to phase out nuclear power by 2022.
Eight of
Germany
's 17
reactors have already been switched off and the nine reactors currently on line
are due to be turned off between 2015 and 2022.
Concerns were raised after the decision that
Germany
,
Europe
's top
economy, could suffer power shortages during the winter.
This week, temperatures that have fallen as low as minus 20 Celsius have
combined with supply difficulties of Russian gas to squeeze capacity, said the
state ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a highly populated and industrial region.
Germany
as a
whole produces enough electricity for its needs, but much of its production
capacity, especially offshore, is located in the north while much of the demand
is in the south.
This means operators occasionally have to step in to stabilize the network.
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