The energy company eins energie in sachsen GmbH & Co. KG is retooling for more environmentally friendly and flexible power generation for Chemnitz, and TRIPS is making a contribution.
The heating plant Altchemnitz has already been modernized and includes three new boilers that use natural gas and offer a combined capacity of 100 megawatts. In addition, an engine combined heat and power plant (CHP) with five modules was built, providing a thermal capacity of at least 57 megawatts and an electrical capacity of over 63 megawatts. This CHP plant was successfully commissioned in 2022 and has been in partially automated base-load operation since January 2023.
In the second step, a similar engine combined heat and power plant with seven engine modules was built at the Chemnitz combined heat and power plant site, which will provide a thermal output of approx. 80 MW and an electrical output of approx. 88 MW. Commissioning was completed in the first quarter of 2023 and the lignite units were decommissioned.
In addition, two gas-fired boilers with a total thermal capacity of 100 MW have been built at the site and will be operational by the end of 2023. A power-to-heat plant with a capacity of 20 MW has also been installed since spring 2023 and will be in operation by the end of 2023. These activities increase thermal generation capacity and flexibility for the district heating grid in Chemnitz, and the power-to-heat plant can help stabilize the electricity grid.
To automate the two plants, TRIPS, on behalf of MAN Energy Solutions, supplied the entire control cabinets for engine and plant control, the 400V supply cabinets for the auxiliary drive engine (Trimot), the 400V supply cabinets of the plant (Trimot) with appropriate software for engine and generator control, the 400V low voltage main distribution and UPS/dc distribution, for the engine cogeneration plants. In addition, both CHP’s were commissioned by our TRIPS team. Since February 2022, our employees have repeatedly been on site at the end customer for various assignments.
The two CHP plants use methane and can burn natural gas, biogas, or synthetic gas. They reduce CO2 emissions by about 60 percent compared to the previous technology, which is equivalent to saving CO2 emissions that would be emitted by about 260,000 cars per year.
MDR article “Combined heat and power plants in Chemnitz step on the gas”. (german)