Grevenbroich – This coal opponent is threatened with a hefty back payment on the electricity bill – amounting to 1.4 million euros!
Biology student Eike G. (24) from Oldenburg blocked the tracks of the coal railway with other opponents of coal on November 5, 2021.
The accused (Eike G. describes himself as diverse) had cemented himself under the tracks in a tube with his arm and nails up to 15 centimeters long! It took the police 17 hours to free all the blockers. Eike G. now had to answer to the district court of Grevenbroich for “disturbing public services and resisting enforcement officials”.
But the energy giant’s hefty lawsuit for damages is likely to be worse than the impending fine.
Entire block had to be shut down
Because of the track blockade at the time, lignite might not be transported to the Neurath power plant every 20 minutes as usual. When the 6,000 tons of coal in the bunker ran out, three blocks in the power plant were only running at “low load”. Block D (600 MW class) was completely shut down in the evening.
An RWE engineer (59) explains: “The electricity from the power plant was sold in advance.” RWE had to buy the electricity that was not produced (around 20,000 megawatt hours) elsewhere in order to be able to supply it. The bottom line is that the electricity bill is 1.3 million euros plus the cost of oil and lignite to restart the switched-off unit (117,000 euros).
Action produced even more carbon dioxide
The engineer: “In this power plant, carbon dioxide was saved, but not in the ancient power plants with poorer efficiency.” So the blockade of the coal opponents had exactly the opposite effect.