Germany's economy ministry is evaluating options to boost output from coal-fired units as a measure to ease elevated power prices, a ministry spokesperson disclosed on August 31. The discussion centers on reserve coal facilities, assets kept on standby and normally activated only during supply crunches.

"This is not entirely straightforward for technical and economic reasons, as well as for reasons relating to European law," the spokesperson noted. "We are continuing to examine whether a suitable mechanism can be devised."

Escalating energy costs linked to the Iran conflict have created pressure on Germany's power market. Last week, a senior figure within Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) floated the idea of wider coal-plant utilization amid lofty natural gas prices.

Sepp Müller, deputy head of the CDU parliamentary faction, argued coal-fired capacity should stay operational until equivalent-size gas-fired generation comes online, a milestone tentatively targeted for 2030-31.

Müller's proposal drew pushback from the Social Democrats, the government's junior coalition partner. Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius added that activating those reserve coal plants was not under active consideration for the time being.

The economy ministry spokesperson emphasized any deployment of these ageing, low-efficiency reserve units would need to make economic sense." That means we would have to assess whether they could actually have a positive impact on electricity prices," he commented.

Germany's statutory target foresees a full coal power phaseout by 2038, with gas-fired generation and renewables set to fill the supply gap. Nevertheless, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche's initiative to construct new gas-fired plants for power security purposes has faced criticism from environmental groups over its fossil fuel footprint.