Salzburg AG puts the old oil pipeline back into operation
environment
Despite well-filled natural gas storage tanks, the appeal to save gas remains valid as long as it is not known how cold the winter will be and how high consumption will be. Shortly after the beginning of the war, Salzburg AG switched to oil in the thermal power station north and is now even putting an old pipeline back into operation.
Just two days after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Salzburg AG switched the thermal power station north from gas to oil operation in order to save on natural gas. The domestic gas storage facilities are currently well filled, but the head of district heating production at Salzburg AG, Sebastian Schuller, wants to ensure district heating for the 23,000 customers in any case and is therefore now making preparations for the company’s second large thermal power plant.
Salzburg AG will be prepared for emergencies
“In order to transport the oil from the northern thermal power station, where our deposits are, to the central thermal power station, you need this heating oil line. This line was built in 2005, then shut down in 2015, cleaned and preserved with nitrogen. Now the line has been technically checked, equipped with the latest leak warnings and checked by accredited bodies. The central thermal power station should only be operated with oil in an emergency,” explains Schuller.
With the re-commissioning of the 2.2-kilometer-long pipeline along the Mayburgerkai and the Elisabethkai, the central thermal power station could be switched from gas to oil operation at any time within a few days, adds Schuller, head of the power plant.