TenneT spends record sum to stabilise power grid in 2017

The need for, and costs of, power grid stabilising measures grew to a record high in 2017 for transmission grid operator TenneT, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to preliminary data, TenneT said it had invested almost 1 billion euros in 2017 (710 million euros in 2015, 660 million euros in 2016) in re-dispatch and other stabilising measures, because Germany’s grid still lacked crucial power connections to cope with the increased feed-in of renewable power. “We urgently need an Energiewende-grid […]. Until then, grid congestion, high costs for consumers and a growing instable supply are the harsh reality,” said Tennet CEO Lex Hartmann. The company is responsible for central Germany’s electricity grid from coastal Schleswig-Holstein to southern Bavaria. A key problem in Germany is that high volumes of wind power cannot be transported to industrial centres in the south because of a lack of transmission lines.

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheets Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid and Power grid fees – unfair and opaque?