“Lower costs for grid congestion management show positive effects of grid expansion”

The costs for grid congestions management in German grid operator 50Hertz’s control area in north-eastern Germany were almost halved to 180 million euros in 2016, compared to 354 million euros in 2015, according to 50Hertz . “This very clearly shows: grid expansion works,” said CEO Boris Schucht in a press release. There were several reasons for the lower costs: important power lines were finished, phase shifters were installed at the border to Poland, and fewer days with strong winds made for less need to manage excess power, writes Jens Tartler in a separate article in Tagesspiegel. “50Hertz copes with the Energiewende better and better,” he writes.

Read the press release in German here, a presentation of the results in German here and the Tagesspiegel article in German here.

For background read the CLEW factsheets Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid and Loop flows: Why is wind power from northern Germany putting east European grids under pressure?