Ansaldo Energia – "Special technical grid equipment“

In politics and in the media, the topic of the energy transition is in full swing. one issue here, for example, is the expansion of energy or power generation systems. In order to be able to guarantee the reliability and security of the electricity supply system, e. g. during and after an outage, additional, controllable and highly flexible capacities are needed, so-called grid stabilization systems.

This is a direct consequence of the currently planned decommissioning of all nuclear power plants in Germany by the end of 2022, getting away from coal and the not yet available electricity highway, which should bring power from renewable energies from the north, where it exists as offshore wind parks, to the rest of Germany. In total, four grid stabilization systems will be built in the area of southern Germany, with a total output of 1200 MW. This has been decided by the Federal Grid Agency. As a rule, the power in these power plants is generated by gas turbines.

A particular feature of these systems is the certainty that they will go into operation only if there is an outage in the transmission grid. Systems with respectively 300 MW electrical output should be completely in operation by October 2022 and remain available as a safeguard in the transmission grid until September 2032.For the projects at the Marbach location in Baden-Württemberg and at the UNIPER location in Bavaria, the Italian power plant builders Ansaldo Energia will provide the needed technology for the construction of the gas turbine power plants.  Both systems will be erected as gas turbines. An essential difference is in the fuel. Natural gas is used in Irsching, and in Marbach light oil is burned. The heart of the system is the AE 94.3A class F turbine. The gas turbines come from Ansaldo's own manufacture in Genoa, first per ship and then by heavy transport to the cons-truction site. A single gas turbine weighs 220 tons. Transport and loading alone cost about one million euro.

For Ansaldo Energia, it is the first large undertaking as an EPC* on German soil. In the past, INP has already successfully worked together with the Italian company in the area of control systems and electrical engineering. We at INP will be able to guide the projects from the start. In the area of contract and claims management, we were able to bring Thomas Dietz into INP; he was previously active for 25 years as the commercial purchasing manager at Steinmüller Babcock and has wide-ranging experience in international power plant construction. For the site manager task, we acquired Bertram Baeske, already known to INP from his time as site manager at Mitsubishi for diverse projects such as Zeran in Poland. In the area of HSE, as a rule the harmonization of the HSE documentation was processed with German regulations in active exchange with the headquarters in Genoa.

However, INP is not just active in the realm of manpower, our support was also requested in the founding of the Ansaldo branch office in Marbach. Not only did we implement the acquisition of furniture, office equipment and other inventory, but Ekkehard Kuhnle and his team also assumed numerous tasks in the development of IT in a new office space. This is a good example of how multifaceted our competences are and that INP can also offer solutions beyond the usual project business. 

The construction work in both projects is in full swing and, despite some difficulties caused by the corona pandemic, all project participants are fully engaged in completing the grid stabilization systems this year according to plan - or as they are officially called, "special technical grid operating equipment" and in ensuring a secure supply of power in our transmission grid.