Alpiq Inaugurates Hybrid Power Plant in Hungary

Energy group Alpiq inaugurated a EUR 64 million hybrid power plant – combining gas engine generation with battery storage – in Budapest on Monday.

Gábor Briglovics, managing director of Alpiq Hungary, said at the handover ceremony that the Csepel gas-fired power plant has a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW), and with its commissioning, the combined capacity of the two Csepel power plants will increase to 450 megawatts.

The significance of hybrid gas engine technology lies in its flexibility; it facilitates the integration of weather-dependent renewable energy sources into the electricity grid. The gas engines start up whenever there is a need to increase electricity generation, the managing director explained. He added that the company built the gas engine unit and the energy storage facility using its own resources.

Gábor Briglovics emphasized that the weather events experienced this summer have heightened the importance of energy security and energy supply, and that the stability of the system will remain crucial in the future as well.

The Csepel gas engine power plant also plays a role in reducing the environmental impact of energy production. The plant’s high-capacity energy storage systems ensure a rapid response to growing consumer demand until the gas engines take over the load.

“In the past, to ensure a rapid response, generating units had to be kept on continuous standby, meaning the turbines operated continuously, which resulted in unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions,” the director said.

András Tótth, State Secretary for Energy at the Ministry of Economy and Energy (GEM), highlighted as a key government objective that, in addition to achieving climate protection goals, corporate competitiveness should increase, and the modernization of the energy system in Hungary should be carried out on a market basis, with minimal state support and in a transparent manner.

In a press release about the event, Alpiq Hungary stated that the development of the power plant will further increase Alpiq’s significance in Hungarian electricity generation.

The Swiss-owned company’s environmentally friendly, gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant, named Csepel II, began operations in 2002; it was the first privately financed facility of its kind in Hungary.

In addition to generating electricity, the power plant provides district heating to approximately 20,000 apartments in southern Budapest.