OREANDA-NEWS. July 16, 2012. On the premises of K+S KALI GmbH in Philippsthal, E.ON and K+S KALI GmbH have commissioned a new gas turbine unit in the highly modern, efficient Hattorf power station. Ingo Luge, who oversees E.ON’s business in Germany, and Ralf Diekmann, managing director of K+S KALI GmbH, gave the starting signal for energy generation in the new plant jointly with Ralf Orth, mayor of Philippsthal. The modernised complete power station has now entered the phase of expanded trial operation; commercial operation will start from September.

E.ON has invested around € 50 million in the power station built directly near existing facilities. The Hattorf location requires large amounts of electrical energy and steam for its surface and underground operations. The new plant entirely reflects the requirements for potash production in line with the environment; it is the backbone of the modern electricity and process heat supply system at the location in Philippsthal.

“Distributed generation of energy reduces the load on transmission grids, makes companies more independent and is better for the environment, thus constituting a key element in Germany’s energy turnaround. We will therefore continue to expand distributed generation in a consistent manner, considering proven and efficient combined heat and power generation technology essential in the process,” said Ingo Luge.

“It is not only the two companies E.ON and K+S KALI GmbH who benefit from the project, but also the environment,” said Ralf Diekmann, managing director of K+S KALI GmbH. And he continued: “This is another step on our way towards conserving key resources and using them as efficiently as possible, underlining our consistent approach.”

The new plant has an electrical output of 30 MW and produces up to 80 tonnes of process steam per hour. This means, in purely arithmetical terms, the plant could supply every year the electricity required for approx. 70,000 households as well as the heat required for approx. 30,000 homes.

Thanks to almost optimum utilisation of natural gas used as fuel, the gas turbine unit achieves very high efficiencies of just under 90 percent. Operation of the new power station saves approx. 95,000 tonnes of CO2 annually compared to the generation of the same amounts of electricity and steam in older plants. With the new plant, which forms part of comprehensive modernisation of the location’s energy supply system, E.ON and K+S KALI GmbH are also making a sustainable contribution to the protection of the climate.