German grid agency urges operators to accelerate electricity network upgrades

Germany’s grid agency has urged the country’s four electricity transmission network operators to strengthen the grid instead of their preferred option of relying more heavily on short-term fixes. The agency warned the operators' proposals could leave the country with an undersized grid and trigger an EU order to split Germany into two or more electricity pricing areas. The electricity grid has turned out to be a major hurdle for a rapid energy transition not only in Germany, but in many countries worldwide. Germany is in the process of modernising its grid for many billions of euros as it needs to transport renewable electricity from the windy north to industrial centres in the south as it phases out coal.In its provisional assessment of the operators’ grid development plans for the target years 2037 and 2045, the agency (BNetzA) approved 118 of their proposed projects, but rejected around 40. The agency criticised the purely economic cost-benefit analysis by the operators and said the proposals wouldn’t result in sufficient future transmission capacity. “Based on the measures for the target year 2037, grid bottlenecks remain,” the agency said. It called for bringing forward planned grid extension projects instead of spending more on so-called redispatch measures – short-term interventions where some power plants are told to produce less and others more, to keep electricity flowing safely through congested lines. In the past, Germany’s four transmission grid operators usually proposed extensive grid extensions and the agency stepped on the breaks to lower costs, making this role reversal very unusual, according to Tagesspiegel Background. “Further expansion of the extra-high-voltage grid is necessary to drive forward the energy transition, maintain a high level of security of supply and achieve climate targets,” said the agency’s head, Klaus Müller.The regulator also warned that tolerating large volumes of redispatch long-term would put Germany’s single electricity pricing area at risk. The EU could perceive bottlenecks as structural and oblige Germany to split into different bidding zones, a step the current government wants to avoid.

Raccontata dacleanenergywire.org