Network operator starts using offshore wind to stabilise grid
Clean Energy Wire
Grid operator TenneT has started using 17 wind farms in the North Sea to prevent grid bottlenecks, the company that runs a large section of the German transmission grid ranging from the coast to the Alps announced in a press release. With immediate effect, the wind farms with a capacity of 4.5 gigawatts (GW) are used in the redispatch process, utilising them – just as conventional plants are – to relieve the grid. “This is a major step towards making the power system as a whole more flexible and further equipping it for the growing challenges of the energy transition,” said TenneT COO Tim Meyerjürgens.
Due to a shortage in north-south power connections, German grid operators frequently have to revert to redispatch measures and feed-in management, expensive interventions that require the curbing of renewable power input and ramping up of power stations to balance out bottlenecks. To reduce such interventions, a new system “Redispatch 2.0” was launched by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in 2021, in which all storage facilities and generation plants larger than 100 kilowatts (kW) will be included in the future to encourage the use of all available plants and facilities while reducing the curbing of renewables.
