VERBUND power plant St. Andrae continues operation until 2003

At its recent meeting the Supervisory Board of the VERBUND subsidiary Draukraft resolved unanimously not to shut down the thermal power plant St. Andrae in Carinthia in mid-May 2001 as planned.

The deadline was extended to the year 2003, the end of the trial operation. Until then additional test series will be carried out under official supervision in order to obtain a license for commercial operation subsequently.

The reason for the Supervisory Board's decision of April 4 are the positive results of the ongoing trial operation for generating electricity from biomass and derived fuels. In the framework of this trial operation, which was started in December 2000, controlled type-specific waste products are burned instead of hard coal. Biomass is burned simultaneously, and eco-power as defined by the Austrian Electricity Law ElWOG is generated and fed into the supply network of the Carinthian Provincial Electricity Company KELAG.