London (Platts)--16Nov2012/909 am EST/1409 GMT
German utility E.ON has lost a legal appeal to keep a number of old coal-fired power plants running beyond the end of this year until its new Datteln 4 unit gets permission to operate, the federal administrative court in Leipzig said in a statement. The court upheld a decision by a lower court, which does not allow for a revision of the closure decision for the units Datteln 1-3 as well as Shamrock, which were commissioned in the 1950s and 1960. But E.On is expected to get special permission from state authorities in North-Rhine Westphalia to keep its Datteln 1-3 coal-fired units running in 2013, the environment ministry said in a statement earlier this month. The three units at Datteln have a combined capacity of just 303 MW, but generate the lion's share of power used by trains in the region, which caused warnings that rail transport could grind to a halt in Germany's most populous state on cold winter mornings should the units have to come offline in January. Article continues below...Request a free trial of: International Coal ReportInternational Coal Report and its daily companion, Coal Trader International, deliver expert and respected price assessments for coal trading in the Atlantic and Pacific markets including price assessments for European CIF ARA, FOB Newcastle, Richards Bay and Indonesia.
German utility E.ON has lost a legal appeal to keep a number of old coal-fired power plants running beyond the end of this year until its new Datteln 4 unit gets permission to operate, the federal administrative court in Leipzig said in a statement. The court upheld a decision by a lower court, which does not allow for a revision of the closure decision for the units Datteln 1-3 as well as Shamrock, which were commissioned in the 1950s and 1960. But E.On is expected to get special permission from state authorities in North-Rhine Westphalia to keep its Datteln 1-3 coal-fired units running in 2013, the environment ministry said in a statement earlier this month. The three units at Datteln have a combined capacity of just 303 MW, but generate the lion's share of power used by trains in the region, which caused warnings that rail transport could grind to a halt in Germany's most populous state on cold winter mornings should the units have to come offline in January.
Article continues below...
International Coal Report and its daily companion, Coal Trader International, deliver expert and respected price assessments for coal trading in the Atlantic and Pacific markets including price assessments for European CIF ARA, FOB Newcastle, Richards Bay and Indonesia.
E.ON, which agreed in 2006 to close the older units as it hoped to have its new 1,100 MW Datteln 4 unit operational by now, asked the regional court (OVG Muenster) in March this year to revise the closure order. But the court, which also delayed the construction and permitting process for Datteln 4, refused to allow a revision of the closure decision.--Andreas Franke, andreas_franke@platts.com--Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy_lovell@platts.com
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