“Waiting for the long lines”
Power lines to carry wind power from Germany’s north to its industrial south have been delayed over and over, creating problems for the Energiewende, writes Klaus Stratmann in the Handelsblatt. The current power network is reaching its limits in dealing with the volume of electricity produced by wind parks in the north, he says. Grid operators must continuously interfere with operations, shutting down power facilities in order to keep the network stable, Stratmann writes. “It’s like juggling five balls at the same time,” he quotes one operator as saying, noting that the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) President Jochen Homann recently predicted annual costs of around 4 million euros related to this issue, paid for by consumers.
Read the article (behind paywall) in German here.
Read a CLEW dossier on the Energiewende and the German power grid here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on re-dispatch costs for grid stabilisation here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on the grid here.