Factbox-Germany fires up extra coal power capacity to plug winter supplies

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German coal power capacity has received a boost of roughly 6 gigawatts (GW) at the start of the winter season under a raft of measures and policies to safeguard energy supplies as dwindling Russian exports leave Europe short of fuel.

Germany was meant to phase out coal power plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions but changed its plans after Russia's invasion of Ukraine fuelled an energy crisis in Europe.

The following list shows moves by operators to either restart idled power generation units, or to keep others open beyond closure deadlines, to combat energy scarcity.

It will be updated with reports of progress or delays.

* German utility Steag returned the Bexbach and Weiher hard coal-fired power plants to the grid as of Oct. 28 and Oct. 31 and is keeping open two other plants that would otherwise have been retired at the end of October -- a total gain of 2.5 gigawatts (GW).

* Uniper will also keep its 345 megawatt (MW) Scholven C hard coal plant online.

* In the brown coal sector, RWE, restarted three coal-burning power blocks, Neurath C, Niederaussem E and F, with a combined capacity of just under 900 MW, in October.

RWE's Neurath D and E blocks, with a combined 1.2 GW, will be allowed to remain on the grid beyond end-2022 as part of a deal committing RWE to phasing coal completely by 2030.

* Eastern German power producer Leag, owned by Czech investor EPH and PPF Investments, restarted the Jaenschwalde E unit, with 500 MW, in October, and will bring block F, with 500 MW, onto the grid in mid-November, brown coal industry group Debriv said in a newsletter on Wednesday.

Prior hard coal plant additions:

* Uniper kept Heyden 4 of 875 MW open instead of retiring it in August, while EPH decided to bring back the 690 MW Mehrum plant which had closed last December and was due to be permanently shut in September.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Matthias Williams and Tomasz Janowski)