“Heat from electricity; stabilizers for the grid”

Industrial enterprises are increasingly using power-to-heat technology to save on energy bills, the Handelsblatt reports. A sugar factor in east Germany, for example, needs constant heat for its production processes, Jakob Struller writes. At times when there is excess power on the grid, an electric boiler automatically switches on. In this way, companies can earn money on the control power market for helping to keep the grid stable when there is a surge of electricity from renewable energy. Regulatory changes could make the power-to-heat sector even more profitable, with large-scale power-to-heat plants able to prevent the current problem of power being lost when renewable facilities are switched off to prevent grid congestion.

See the article in German here (behind a paywall).