Uniper urges caution in Germany's exit from coal FRANKFURT, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Germany should take care in closing coal-fired power plants to avoid disruption and spread risks evenly, power utility Uniper said on Tuesday.
Chief Finance Officer Christopher Delbrueck said on a call with journalists that Uniper had proposed including hard coal plants in a security reserve of 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of brown-coal fired capacity.
"This...could provide supply security despite the coming exit from nuclear power (by 2022)," he said. The call was held after the release of Uniper's nine-month earnings.
A commission is working on a roadmap for phasing out coal as an energy source, similar to Germany's plan to exit nuclear power.
The commission by year-end is due to present its first proposals on enforcing further cuts to carbon emissions from the coal sector.
Delbrueck said policymakers should also give legal certainty up to 2030 for the operations of gas-fired plants to support investment in that sector and allow voluntary coal plant closure tenders.
"This would make it easier to plan the coal exit and avoid disruptions, while being cost efficient and tolerable for the macroeconomy," he said. (Reporting by Vera Eckert and Chris Steitz; editing by Jason Neely)