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New training prospects for Bergkamen power plant site

STEAG to cooperate with RWE on industrial and technical apprenticeships

Bergkamen/Essen. Essen-based Iqony GmbH recently presented plans for the construction of a new gas-fired power plant at the Heil power plant site in Bergkamen, which will be climate-neutral in the future thanks to the use of hydrogen. Iqony’s parent company STEAG and RWE have now concluded a cooperation agreement to secure the site’s long-term supply of skilled employees. Under the agreement, up to two STEAG apprentices per year will initially be trained as mechatronics technicians and electricians for automation technology at RWE’s Gersteinwerk plant in Werne from the 2024 training year onwards. The partnership could also be expanded in the future.

STEAG Power’s existing hard coal fired power plant in Bergkamen is currently classified as system-relevant until 2026. This means that the plant will be kept in constant operational readiness so that its output of 717 megawatts (MW) can be used to guarantee security of supply and stabilize the electricity grid if necessary.

As the plant, which went into operation in 1981, is now approaching the end of its technical service life, Iqony, as part of the STEAG Group, is planning to build a new, modern combined cycle power plant at the existing site. The new plant, fueled by green hydrogen, will be completely climate-neutral.

“We need young skilled workers for the transformation of the site and the future operation of the new power plant. This is particularly true in light of the fact that our existing workforce is literally getting on in years, just like the plant itself. To counteract this, we have concluded a cooperation agreement with RWE’s Gersteinwerk, which will enable us to train our skilled workers of tomorrow close to the site in the future,” says Dr. Andreas Reichel, CEO and Labor Director of STEAG and Iqony, explaining the background to the recently concluded agreement.

Dr. Ivan Serdarusic, Head of the Customer Power Plants cluster at RWE Generation, says: “As of August, RWE will be training specialists in the fields of mechatronics and electronics for automation technology in its reactivated training workshop at the Gersteinwerk power plant site. We look forward to welcoming STEAG trainees to the newly established training workshop. Regional training partnerships are a tradition for us and are to be expanded in Werne with further partners.”

Investment in the skilled staff of tomorrow
This agreement was signed by STEAG’s Head of Human Resources Verena Sievers and Thomas Ciecierski, Head of the Engineering Division at STEAG Power GmbH. In the context of the availability of skilled workers at the Bergkamen site, the industrial and technical training at RWE is only the first of several qualification stages that future power plant operators will have to complete.

“After the initial training, the aim is to gain a further qualification as a power plant operator. Experience shows that it takes five years to complete all the qualification stages,” explains Thomas Ciecierski. “In this respect, we are right on schedule with regard to the planned commissioning of the new power plant by around 2030.”

Future training program
The first part of the inter-company training program will take place at RWE’s Gersteinwerk plant as provided for by the cooperation agreement; this also includes attending the mandatory lessons at the vocational colleges in Dortmund and Hamm. The second part of the course will take place at STEAG’s Bergkamen site and at the Trianel power plant in Lünen, which is also managed by STEAG.

STEAG had originally centralized industrial and technical training for its North Rhine-Westphalian sites at the Herne power plant site in 2020 and built a new training workshop specifically for that purpose. “At that time, in view of the upcoming political decision to phase out coal-fired power generation in Germany, we expected the demand for personnel to decline. It was assumed that all coal-fired power plants would be gradually decommissioned,” says Verena Sievers.

However, this situation has now fundamentally changed with the plans for construction of new hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants as part of a successful energy transition – a step which is also welcomed by federal government politicians: “We are taking these changed framework conditions into account by embarking on the present cooperation arrangement,” Verena Sievers adds.

First trainee from Selm
The first STEAG apprentice to undergo training at the Gersteinwerk plant comes from Selm in the district of Unna.

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