Energy Minister Eli Cohen’s announcement yesterday (Tuesday) on Shutting down power generation at the Redding station led to a fight over the credit between the government ministries. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, this is the adoption of its headquarters’ work, called “Reading’s outline for achieving energy security and protecting public health in Gush Dan”. The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure called this taking of credit a “complete fake”. But the one who outlines the policy most of all is the Ministry of Finance, which is more interested in the real estate value of the land than in Israel’s energy and infrastructure needs.
The Redding station is very old, polluting and expensive to operate, and should have been closed a long time ago. In the absence of new power plants to replace it, it has been “carried” for many years. The need to maintain an electricity production center in the heart of Tel Aviv was due to the difficulty of establishing large transmission solutions in a reasonable time, while the demand for electricity in Gush Dan is increasing at a rapid rate of about 5% per year.
The Ministry of Energy decided to disable it for renovation and asbestos removal, but today it is clear that the electric company is unable to complete the renovation. Another alternative is needed: Generating electricity elsewhere while creating a new transmission solution, building a new station in its place, or massively increasing solar electricity generation and storage facilities.
Stations will be established near Rishon Lezion and Rosh Ha’Ein
Outline of the Ministry of Environmental Protection Based on solar electricity storage and production facilities in Gush Dan. According to the ministry, over the past year its people “have been in continuous and fruitful working relationship with the Electricity Authority and the Ministry of Energy” regarding the alternative plan, which replaces “the construction of polluting gas turbines at the Redding site with “energy storage combined with solar production”. The ministry also hopes for the “establishment of distributed solar energy production facilities all over the Gush Dan with an aggregate capacity of about 400 megawatts“.
The Ministry of Energy responded: “The announcement of the Ministry of Environmental Protection is puzzling and irrelevant. The decision is the result of the work of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure for over a year, long before the Ministry of Environmental Protection published its work in question about a month ago. It stems from progress in the development of the electricity transmission system, and is not related to the establishment of storage facilities or attempts to decentralize Electricity production in Gush Dan”.
This is not the first time The ministries are quarreling over the involvement of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the energy sectoreven when it is clear that the decisions of the Ministry of Energy have profound environmental consequences. In this case, it is not clear to what extent this is an achievement – neither in the field of infrastructure, nor in the field of the environment.
The Redding station has, on paper, a generating capacity of 426 megawatts. It is impossible, even in theory, to replace it with 400 megawatts of solar power, even if ample storage facilities are built. 4-5 times greater solar power is needed to replace a gas power plant that is used daily. Because Redding station is outdated, Very polluting and rarely used, its production capacity may be lower than stated, but it is certainly not a question of considered alternatives.
In practice, Redding will not be replaced by a storage facility and renewable energies. The Nega Electricity System Management Company and the Electricity Authority will rely on transmission solutions, which necessitates the construction of new power stations, which will provide electricity to Gush Dan even though they will be further from Tel Aviv.
The proposals that have been approved so far are a large station in the “Shorak” project near Rishon Lezion, and a “Energy magic“near Rosh Ha’Ain. Only if they are erected on time, there will be enough electricity to supply Gush Dan in the coming years without initiated power outages. A storage facility and solar facilities in the Tel Aviv area, if indeed they are built, are considered a nice “bonus”, and the Ministry of Energy does not build on them.
Treasury’s goal: sale of land for billions
What is happening in Redding must be understood in a specific way The real estate angle, which guides the Ministry of Finance. This is land in the most expensive area in Israel, worth billions of shekels. For this reason the smooth torpedo in the reform of the electricity sectoraccording to which the electric company was supposed to Sell the complex to private buyersThatA station twice as large will be built in place of the existing station.
Hanan Mor, the contractor who purchased the land for approximately NIS 1.5 billion, is currently in a freeze of proceedings, but it does not matter to the Ministry of Finance. The money has already passed, and the potential of the Redding areas is also clear. This Real estate logic Similar to the one that brought the Treasury to promote the closure of Sde Dov, and damage access to Eilat in order to establish a residential neighborhood in north Tel Aviv.
Even the decision to leave part of Redding’s territory to the electric company, in favor of a facility for receiving electricity from an underwater cable and land for a storage facility, is a challenge to the Ministry of Finance. If Minister Eli Cohen succeeds in realizing this plan, it will be an achievement for both the energy sector and the electric company, which will benefit from maintaining a significant storage facility.
If the Ministry of Finance determines the future of the area, on the other hand, as much land as possible from the Redding station complex will go to the Israel Land Authority and will be marketed at the highest price. Unlike settlements in Sharon, Tel Aviv residents are not required toLoud protests against the construction of power plants. The Ministry of Finance, which opposes its establishment in the areas of demand, enjoys a power that no resident protest can dream of.
