Siemens and STEAG GuD Herne GmbH have signed an agreement on the turnkey construction of a combined cycle power plant with district heat extraction. They also entered into a long-term service agreement. The Herne 6 plant will have an electrical capacity of more than 600 megawatts (MW). Steam will also be extracted, and the thermal energy obtained will be used for the district heating grid of Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region. Never before has a single power plant unit been able to provide 400 MW of (thermal) district heat with combined cycle operation.
The overall fuel efficiency of the natural gas used thus climbs to more than 85 percent, making the power plant one of the world’s most efficient and most environmentally friendly plants. The investment volume for Herne 6 is in the mid-triple-digit euro range.
In its role as general contractor, Siemens will build the plant on the site of an existing power plant owned by STEAG in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Herne. The plant’s key components will be manufactured in Germany: the steam turbine and generator in Mülheim and the H-class gas turbine at the gas turbine factory in Berlin. Starting in the spring of 2022, the new gas-fired CHP plant is expected to generate electricity and reliably supply the Rhine-Ruhr region with district heat at the same time.
