In the media: Stable power supply / Germany and Brazil join forces against climate change

Federal Network Agency / Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Twelve minutes without power”

The German power supply was more stable in 2014 than in any year since 2006, the Federal Network Agency said yesterday. An average power consumer experienced an outage of 12 minutes and 17 seconds last year, according to the SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index). The outage time in 2013 was 15.32 minutes. There was still no visible negative influence of the Energiewende or the increase of decentralised power production, the president of the network agency, Jochen Homann, said. Last year was particularly stable because there had been fewer extreme weather events.
Power cuts in Germany are mostly caused by weather events and building works, the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes. Germany’s SAIDI values are very good compared to other EU countries, the article says. Germany was without power for 15 minutes and 91 seconds in 2012, compared to 39 minutes in Austria, 63 minutes in France and almost five hours in Lithuania.

Read the press release from the Federal Network Agency in German here.

See Germany’s SAIDI values since 2006 here.

Reuters / EurActiv / Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Germany and Brazil join forces on climate change action”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff have agreed on a joint stance on climate change, Reuters reports. Environmental cooperation was top of the agenda during Merkel’s 24-hour visit to Brasilia. Rousseff said Brazil was committed to reducing deforestation in the Amazon to zero by 2030 and declared support for decarbonising the world’s economy by the end of the century. The country will also phase out the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas by 2100, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. The German government announced 550 million euros in financing for renewable energy projects and other environment programmes. Merkel said she was happy about Rousseff’s “ambitious climate agenda”.

Read the Reuters/EurActiv article in English here and here.

Read the Süddeutsche report in German here.

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Brazil is moving”

Brazil is still one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world but it is good to see that President Dilma Rousseff is making a move now, writes Michael Bauchmüller in an op-ed for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. It is a very good sign that Brazil, as the first large emerging economy, is embracing the decarbonisation target that the heads of the G7 states agreed on in Germany earlier this year. Brazil will be a key country at the climate conference in Paris, Bauchmüller says.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Reuters

“Government doubles spending on combined heat and power plants”

A new law could increase support for combined heat and power (CHP) plants from 650 million euros per year to 1.5 billion euros, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel aims to keep combined heat and power stations, which are more efficient than normal power plants, in the mix and eventually substitute coal-fired CHP with more environmentally friendly gas-fired CHP plants. Coal-fired CHP plants will not be supported in the future, the article says. Consumers will have to pay for the 870 million euros rise in CHP support via a levy on the power price, amounting to 0.53 cents per kilowatt-hour (previously 0.25 ct/kWh), or 10 euros more per year for an average three-person household. Only the most energy-intensive industries that use more than one gigawatt per year will be partially exempt from the levy, paying 0.04 ct/kWh (before 0.05 ct/kWh) instead.

Read the report in English here.

Read a CLEW factsheet on combined heat and power here.

Read a CLEW factsheet on power prices for industrial consumers here.