Frankfurt Airport Modernizes Ground Power Supply  

Fraport equipping more aircraft parking positions with ground power connections – Mobile Ground Power Units to be exclusively electric in future – German federal government backing modernization with €215,000 grant  

Airport operator Fraport is pushing ahead with an overhaul of its ground power supply at Frankfurt Airport (FRA). As part of the Group’s climate protection strategy, the remaining diesel units supplying electricity to on-board systems for parked aircraft will disappear entirely from the FRA’s apron by 2040. However, the nature of the airport’s infrastructure means that it will not be possible to equip each one of the current 255 aircraft positions with a stationary 400 Hz connection. At these remaining aircraft parking positions, only battery-powered ground power units (GPUs) will be used.

Fraport will be supported to implement this climate initiative by the ground power directive funding program operated by the German Ministry for Digital and Transport. The funding of €215,000 will be used to equip a building position in terminal section C. Due to the structural conditions at this aircraft position, Fraport will procure a battery-powered e-GPU that includes charging infrastructure. The total investment involved is €307,000.

Christoph Schiller from Fraport AG’s asset management team for central infrastructure explains: “The first aim is to connect those parking positions that do not yet have a stationary ground power connection to the electric grid. But to achieve this, major excavation works are necessary. These need to take place during ongoing operations. We are therefore proceeding on the basis that we will be able to upgrade around 12 positions by 2026.” Around 67 percent of the positions are currently connected. However, it will not be possible to install fixed 400 Hz ground power units at some positions, as the locations would require the installation of an above-ground transformer. “These sites include our ’roll-through’ aircraft positions, in which the aircraft, instead of being pushed back, uses its own power and leaves the position by rolling forward. We can’t have any obstacles in the way in these cases,” specifies Christoph Schiller. “Going forward, we will need mobile e-GPUs at these positions. With every diesel unit that we remove from the apron, we can save up to 30,000 liters of diesel annually and significantly reduce our CO₂ emissions.” Fraport currently has eight e-GPUs and around 61 diesel-powered units in use.

The ground power directive

The ground power directive is a funding initiative from the German Ministry for Digital and Transport to support alternative technologies for climate- and environmentally-friendly supply of ground power to aircraft at airports. The funding directive is coordinated by NOW GmbH, with applications approved by Germany’s Federal Agency for Administrative Services (BAV).

Climate protection a key component of Fraport’s sustainability strategy

Fraport will operate on a carbon-free basis by no later than 2045 at its home-base in Frankfurt and all of its Group airports worldwide. By 2030, Fraport aims to reduce its emissions at FRA to 50,000 tonnes annually. These climate goals are part of the Group’s overall sustainability strategy. For Fraport, sustainability means future viability. The comprehensive overhaul of the ground power supply will make a major contribution to ensuring Fraport’s climate-friendly future.

E-Project at Frankfurt Airport Using Charging Infrastructure Bidirectionally

Fraport turning electric vehicles into mobile power storage units – Project supported by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

Airport operator Fraport is gradually converting its fleet of vehicles to electric drives. Parallel to this, the charging infrastructure at Germany’s largest air traffic hub is also expanding and evolving. It now still works conventionally, with current flowing from a charging point into vehicles’ storage batteries. In the future, however, power will also be supplied in the opposite direction. This approach will turn e-vehicles into mobile storage units that are able to feed unused power back into the grid on an as-needed basis. The technology isn’t yet ready for large-scale use, however, and the interfaces also still need to be standardized. This applies in particular to many of the special-purpose vehicles used for aircraft ground handling.

Fraport is receiving support from the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action for broadly implementing this ambitious idea at the airport. Over the next four years, a total of over five million euros will flow to Frankfurt Airport within the scope of Germany’s program to promote  electromobility. Fraport itself, together with other partners, will invest another 4.1 million euros in the project.

“Frankfurt Airport is providing an ideal, self-contained field test system for implementing a bidirectional charging infrastructure,” explains Michael Kuschel, the Fraport vice president responsible for power and networks. “Fraport is playing all of the main roles in it: we are both the network operator and its primary consumer. The charging points are part of our own infrastructure, and we are also providing the required software. This unique constellation enables us to model the required test environment despite the fact that not all of the technical and regulatory definitions have been fully formulated yet.”

Also involved in the project are Stromnetz Hamburg GmbH (the owner and operator of Hamburg’s power distribution network), which will support Fraport for developing the required software, and the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, which will be monitoring the economic and technical aspects. The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has put the DLR German Aerospace Center in charge of the project.

The goal: to sustainably stabilize the network and power supply

“By the year 2045 at the latest, the Fraport Group will achieve zero carbon operation,” explains Kuschel. “Within the scope of our decarbonization strategy, over the years ahead we’ll mainly be focusing on wind and solar energy. This means that in the future, depending on how much power is generated and consumed at any given moment, sometimes there will be too little or too much in the network. It’s impossible to precisely predict either our actual needs or the availability of renewable energy. So we have to develop a system that will let us flexibly and autonomously manage their fluctuations. One of the keys for accomplishing this is intermediate storage.”

Fraport AG currently has a fleet of about 650 electrically powered vehicles and is planning to add another 600 cars, buses, and dedicated ground handling vehicles with electric drives by 2026. With the aid of bidirectional charging equipment, the storage batteries of this motor pool will collectively constitute a large-scale virtual reservoir able to accept and provide constantly changing amounts of electric power. Controlled by sophisticated software, it will manage supply and demand without negatively impacting everyday operations at Frankfurt Airport. “Fraport’s long-term goal is to introduce bidirectional charging throughout the airport while taking the wide variety of vehicle types used into account,” says Kuschel. “An airport operates critical infrastructure, which makes it essential to consistently ensure a stable network and dependable power supply. This is a major challenge, but once it has been successfully mastered the system will crucially strengthen the airport,” he predicts. “It will also provide attractive economic benefits, since we expect that this migration will also allow us to reduce our expenditures for electric power by making efficient use of available resources.”

Slated to last four years, the project will kick off with a 12-month technical planning phase. Over the following three years, the plans call for nearly 90 bidirectional charging points to be installed at the airport.

Extension to public infrastructure conceivable

Bidirectional charging can also be potentially extended to other, externally used infrastructure at Frankfurt Airport, such as parking facilities. The project also includes appropriate transfer concepts and business models for the public realm. “Here we see good prospects for integrating this innovative technology to manage power supply and demand elsewhere and fully tap its economic potential,” states Claus Grunow, Fraport’s Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Digitalization.

More information about decarbonization in the Fraport Group and power sources of Frankfurt Airport can be found in the  climate protection press kit.

Fraport to Purchase More Wind Energy

Centrica Energy Trading to supply Frankfurt Airport with 63 gigawatt hours of electricity annually from July

Airport operator Fraport is continuing to invest in green wind energy. A new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the European energy services and solutions provider  Centrica Energy Trading A/S  will provide the Frankfurt Airport aviation hub with annual wind energy volumes of around 63 gigawatt hours, starting this July. The energy will come from a newly built wind farm with a total capacity of 22 megawatts located on the German mainland near Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast. The contract will initially run for five years.

From 2026, Fraport’s energy mix will mainly be drawn from renewable energy sources, thanks to an existing major  PPA  which will supply 85 megawatts of output. The new Power Purchase Agreement with Centrica will supplement a similar smaller PPA signed in 2021, under which Fraport purchased wind energy for the first time.

Felix Kreutel, SVP Real Estate and Energy at Fraport AG, says: “Fraport has set itself an ambitious climate goal. By 2045, we will reduce our carbon emissions to zero throughout the Group. The PPA with Centrica is an important pillar in our strategic planning. Even now, it is making a major contribution towards shifting our energy mix in the right direction.”

Fraport’s energy mix increasingly consists of renewable sources. Particularly the use of solar and wind energy will contribute to lower the company’s carbon emissions at Frankfurt Airport to 50,000 metric tons by 2030. This represents a 78 percent reduction over 1990 levels, the base year under international climate agreements. Fraport’s  climate protection strategy  rules out the use of offsetting measures.

Accelerating Climate Action:
Fraport Tightens 2030 Carbon Target

Reduction of Fraport’s CO₂ emissions at Frankfurt Airport to 50,000 tonnes – Electricity mix a key tool – Planned steps to be extended to Group airports worldwide

Fraport is setting an even more ambitious climate protection target at its home base of Frankfurt Airport (FRA). By 2030, the aim is for a maximum of just 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ to be emitted in areas that fall under Fraport’s direct control at Germany’s largest aviation hub. Previously, Fraport had its sights on an interim target that would have reduced carbon emissions at FRA to 75,000 tonnes by 2030.

Fraport’s CEO, Dr. Stefan Schulte, said: “Aviation needs to make a significant contribution towards protecting our planet’s climate. And we need to act faster than in years gone by. That’s our responsibility. For this reason, we’ve once again revised our masterplan for climate action, intensifying our measures wherever possible.”

Green electricity the most important lever for cutting CO₂

The centerpiece of the decarbonization efforts will be the future electricity mix used at Frankfurt Airport, which will largely consist of renewable sources from 2026. By that year, a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with German energy company EnBW will see around 85 per cent of electricity needs being met by wind energy from the North Sea. Moreover, large photovoltaic systems (PV) at the airport will provide another significant proportion of required energy needs. “In every sector, green electricity is the key to a sustainable, climate-friendly approach. We’ve set the pace in Frankfurt by opting for a high-quality PPA and modern photovoltaic systems at an early stage and by consistently pursuing these two approaches”, explained CEO Schulte. Along with changes to the electricity mix and the expansion of alternative propulsion methods, Fraport is also pursuing numerous measures to make Frankfurt Airport’s infrastructure more climate-friendly. These include the installation of smart, needs-driven building technology for air conditioning and lighting, in addition to continuing the switchover to LEDs.

Climate protection will only be successful with a global approach

By 2045, Fraport will be CO₂-free not just at its FRA home-base, but at all fully-consolidated Group airports around the world. Dr. Stefan Schulte is clear: “Zero carbon means we will achieve this target without offsetting our emissions. We’re not going to rely on compensatory measures and their impact in the distant future. We’re taking the direct route.”

Along with the Group’s home-base Frankfurt Airport, Fraport’s climate protection target for 2045 will also apply to its companies and subsidiaries in Lima (Peru), Burgas and Varna (Bulgaria), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Fortaleza and Porto Alegre (Brazil), as well as to the Group’s 14 airports in Greece. By 2030, Fraport will cut CO₂ emissions at its global subsidiaries to 95,000 tonnes. Dr. Stefan Schulte explained: “We see climate change as a central challenge for our international business. We need ideas and approaches that are tailored to each location, while taking their natural environment into account.” For example, Fraport’s South American airports are already well positioned in terms of their electricity mix, with much of their energy coming from renewables – especially hydroelectric generation.

In Greece, Fraport’s initial priority when taking over the management of the 14 regional airports was largely to secure their operational capabilities. CEO Schulte: “We’ve only just started rolling out our climate protection measures in Greece, but we’re going to be taking an even more focused approach in the years to come.”

Commenting on Fraport’s climate achievements so far, Dr. Schulte said: “The pandemic took a considerable economic toll on Fraport and presented us with substantial new challenges that continue even today. The fact that we’ve still been able to maintain our climate commitment almost without modification and have continued to take steps in a timely manner is thanks to the solid preliminary work that our specialist units undertook over the preceding years. We’ve been able to build on these strong foundations. With numerous projects focused on lowering our carbon footprint, we’ve managed to lower our CO₂ emissions at Frankfurt Airport by 50 per cent since 1990, the base year under international climate agreements.”

Sector-wide efforts to protect the planet’s climate

Fraport has direct responsibility for around ten per cent of CO₂ emissions that are made at its home-base airport in Frankfurt. The current decarbonization masterplan is focused on emissions that fall under Fraport’s immediate control, i.e. emissions from Scope 1 and 2. Above and beyond this, Fraport is working within the aviation industry and the airlines, as well as the Deutsche Bahn railroad company, and other industry partners and local companies to implement joint climate measures under Scope 3.

In this vein, Dr. Stefan Schulte has a plea for policymakers: “As a general rule, we welcome any political initiative to protect the planet’s climate. However, we cannot allow unfair competition to be the end result, which will ultimately cause climate protection measures to miss their mark. That’s because if flying becomes more expensive only within Europe, passengers will simply switch to other routings. A safe journey – our promise to our passengers at all our airports – should also involve a sustainable future. We want to make sure this happens with our versatile climate protection strategy. And we will continue to seek an integral approach to greener aviation across our industry.”

Glossary

Hesse and Fraport Boost Electromobility

Hessian state government supports expansion of charging infrastructure at Frankfurt Airport – Fraport also receives government funding for electric buses – Frankfurt Airport a flagship project in Hesse

Fraport AG is gradually converting its ground services fleet at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to alternative propulsion methods. To facilitate this process, the company is receiving financial support from the state of Hesse. Two new funding decisions by Hesse’s state government provide Fraport with a total amount of around €690,000. Of these funds, €464,000 will be spent on building appropriate charging infrastructure at FRA, while €225,000 will be used to purchase two electric buses for transporting passengers.

In total, Fraport will invest around €1.2 million in expanding charging facilities on Frankfurt Airport’s apron by the end of 2024. Moreover, the airport operating company has earmarked €17 million for equipping specialist ground services vehicles with electric drive systems over the same period.

“Converting our vehicle fleet to electricity is an essential part of our decarbonization strategy,” explains Fraport’s CEO, Dr. Stefan Schulte. “We’ve set ourselves the ambitious goal of going carbon-free by 2045, both at our home-base airport in Frankfurt and all of our fully-consolidated Group airports worldwide. Meeting this target requires significant investment, an outlay we started making back in the 1990s. We've continued to invest since then, despite the crises our industry has faced.” A total of 570 vehicles in Fraport’s fleet at Frankfurt Airport are already powered by electricity, or around 16 per cent of the total.

“The state of Hesse has long actively supported our commitment,” underlines Schulte. Before the current two funding rounds, the state government had already contributed €270,000 towards a pilot project of two fully electric buses for passenger use at Frankfurt Airport over the 2018-21 period. “Our ground handling and energy network professionals have learned a great deal from this trial phase. This has allowed them to develop an appropriate charging strategy that is now ready to be seamlessly integrated into our processes. An essential element of this is building a comprehensive network of charging stations for both standard and rapid charging,” Schulte explains. The new funding from the Hessian state government will be used to build up this strategic network.

The Hessian Minister of Economics and Transport, Tarek Al-Wazir, points out that Hesse aims to play a trailblazing role in green transport and sustainable mobility: “We’re looking for a transport system that provides mobility for everyone, but with a far lower impact on the environment. We want to achieve carbon neutrality and we need to consider all sectors in the process. In aviation, there are enormous challenges. Aircraft won’t be powered by electricity anytime soon. Nevertheless, they will have to play their part by reducing their fuel use through efficiency and by switching to synthetic fuels. But aside from flight operations, the running of the airport can also be made more environmentally friendly and carbon-efficient. With the support from the Hessian state government, Fraport is continuing its approach of using the greenest ground vehicles available. Fraport’s commitment to the greater use of electric vehicles means the company is heading in the right direction. Each tonne of CO₂ that is eliminated helps to protect the climate and brings us a step closer to carbon neutrality. Frankfurt Airport’s new electric charging infrastructure is making a contribution towards this plan.”

Initial project stages to get underway this month

The project for expanding the charging infrastructure at Frankfurt Airport is starting this month with the commissioning of two rapid chargers. Fraport will expand the network by an overall total of 34 rapid charging stations. Two “pop-up charging hubs” are planned as part of the expansion. Each hub includes a steel rack with nine rapid charging points that can be positioned on the airport’s apron as required. In each case, there is room for eight cars or baggage tractors. Alternatively, a charging hub can also supply a bus or an aircraft tractor with electricity. In addition, a dedicated charging depot is planned for the passenger bus fleet used by the ground services teams, including an integrated reservations tool. This allows for tracking of both the availability and the charging levels of the buses.4 percent by 2030.

Fraport and EnBW Conclude Long-Term Power Purchase Agreement for Non-Subsidized He Dreiht Offshore Wind Farm 

85 megawatts of green offshore wind energy will improve Fraport’s carbon footprint at Frankfurt Airport

Fraport AG, the publicly listed operator of Frankfurt Airport, and EnBW, the energy provider headquartered in Karlsruhe, have concluded a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) for the supply of electricity generated by offshore wind turbines. The long-term contract guarantees Fraport 85 megawatts (MW) from the 900 MW EnBW He Dreiht wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Germany. The CPPA comes into force in the second half of 2026, and has a term of 15  years.

With the expiry of the previous subsidies under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), PPAs are becoming a key element of the energy transition: They provide developers of renewable energy projects with a reliable source of funding while helping purchasers to quickly achieve ambitious climate targets. “Long-term power purchase agreements are a market response to advancing the energy transition even without government support,” explained EnBW CEO Frank Mastiaux. “PPAs equally benefit purchasers, project developers and the climate. For us, they are the key between renewables-generated power and our major customers.”

The CPPA becomes operational in the summer of 2026. It will enable Fraport to transition a substantial portion of electricity consumption at its Frankfurt Airport home base to green energy. Fraport CEO Dr. Stefan Schulte said the agreement marked a key milestone in Fraport’s ongoing decarbonization strategy: “Renewables such as wind and solar are the focus of our climate strategy. They provide the firm foundations for a comprehensive package of measures to systematically reduce our CO₂ emissions. Our clearly defined goal is to make Frankfurt Airport carbon-free by 2045. The power sourced from this new offshore wind park will play a central role. As an airport operator, we are especially reliant on a dependable, stable source of power that can be scaled up to meet our growing needs. In EnBW, we have found a strong partner. Compared with the conventional energy sources on which we have previously depended, the new CPPA unlocks potential savings of up to 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.”

85 megawatts of green energy from the North Sea

EnBW initiated a new trend in the offshore market with the He Dreiht project in 2017. For the first time in an auction in Germany, the company secured the rights to build the 900 MW wind farm by bidding a subsidy amount of zero cents per kWh. Located about 90 kilometers northwest of the island of Borkum and about 110 kilometers west of Heligoland, He Dreiht is scheduled to go into operation in 2025. The investment decision is planned for 2023. The wind farm with around 60 turbines is currently one of the largest energy transition projects in Europe. It will also be the first to use turbines with a capacity of 15 megawatts each. By way of comparison, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, EnBW Baltic 1 built in 2011, has a capacity of 2.3 megawatts per turbine.

The signing of the CPPA with Fraport also marks the commencement of marketing for further quantities of electricity from He Dreiht. EnBW plans to step up these activities in 2022, enabling further companies to achieve their climate targets using PPAs. The company also plans to use long-term power purchase agreements for the marketing of electricity from two large-scale photovoltaic projects currently under construction, Gottesgabe and Alttrebbin, each of which will generate 150 megawatts. Detailed talks are already underway for Weesow-Willmersdorf, the largest solar farm in Germany.

PPA as a central element of Fraport’s climate strategy

The green electricity supplied from 2026 under the PPA with EnBW to Germany’s largest airport will be harnessed to operate three terminals and many other buildings. The wind-generated power will also be used to illuminate Frankfurt Airport’s apron and four runways, and to charge the growing fleet of more than 500 electric vehicles (EVs) on the airfield, which is some 25 square kilometers in size.

For over a year, Fraport has produced multiple megawatts of eco-friendly electricity itself, via an on-site photovoltaic array. Further arrays are to be built alongside the runways and on existing and new building roofs. The energy mix also includes power from wind parks whose EEG subsidies have expired. The airport consciously leverages electricity from a broad variety of sources to ensure security of supply at all times.

In addition to transitioning to renewables, Fraport’s climate protection strategy foresees improvements to the energy efficiency of existing infrastructure, smart climate control systems, LED technology, and further electrification of the vehicle fleet.

Climate protection has been an integral part of Fraport’s corporate strategy since 1997. For more than 22 years, certification to the EU’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) has ensured that all material forms of environmental impact attributable to airport operations are continuously monitored. Despite the ongoing crisis in the aviation industry, the company remains committed to its comprehensive environmental protection program. The recently concluded PPA makes a key contribution to these efforts.