Marginal power plant

This article deals with marginal power plants in general. In particular, Grenzkraftwerke can also refer to Grenzkraftwerke GmbH , which operates hydropower plants on the Austrian - Bavarian border rivers.

The word “ Grenzkraftwerk” is a term from the electricity industry that - depending on the context - can have two different meanings.

Power plant on the border of two countries

A marginal power plant is a power plant located on the border between two countries . Borderline power plants are run-of-river power plants on rivers, which often form the natural borders between two neighboring countries. Examples of such power plants are the Laufenburg am Rhein power plant (German-Swiss border) and the Eisernes Tor 1 power plant on the Danube (Serbian-Romanian border).

Marginal power plant on the electricity market

→ Main articles : Merit order  and power exchange

In electricity markets based on marginal costs , the power plant that is just taken into account in the order of operation (merit order) is referred to as the marginal power plant . The marginal power plant is then the marginal supplier and thus determines the price.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hanne May: Cost Reduction from Service. In: neueenergie.de. Bundesverband WindEnergie e. V. (BWE), accessed on August 28, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Carl Christian von Weizsäcker: What explains the rising electricity prices? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 219 , September 20, 2005, p. 20 ( online [accessed October 7, 2012]).