German watchdog pushes to keep coal plants (less nuclear = more coal)

[FBaggins]

A German regulator is urging authorities to postpone plans to retire four coal-fired power plants operated by E.ON (EONGn.DE: Quote) to make up for capacity lost due to the nuclear phase out, a German paper reported.

Federal Network Agency chief Matthias Kurth wrote to North Rhine-Westphalia's (NRW) premier Hannelore Kraft, asking her to delay the shutdown of four coal-fired units in the regional state planned for end-2012, Financial Times Deutschland said on Friday. "We think this is sensible given the limited power plant capacity following the (nuclear) moratorium," an agency spokeswoman told the German business daily.

...snip...

The Federal Network Agency is currently preparing a report on the current state of power plants due for publication in September. It has also been lobbying to keep one of the closed nuclear plants on standby for the coming winter when demand runs high, but these attempts have not yet generated results as they run counter to the argument that nuclear power is unsafe. The Agency is responsible for overseeing network operators which must ensure that grids are stable and balanced.

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE77404V20110805