Efforts to speed up grid expansion in Germany show first effects – Amprion CEO

The expansion of Germany’s electricity transmission grid is starting to make progress after the government introduced steps to accelerate much-needed infrastructure development for the energy transition, said Hans-Jürgen Brick, head of transmission grid operator Amprion. "The acceleration initiated by the German government is beginning to have an effect, so that we can implement important projects earlier than originally planned. We are well prepared for the tasks ahead." In a review of its 2022 activites and outlook on its planned activites, Brick said several projects to transport offshore wind power and an underground cable in central Germany will be ready two or three years earlier than planned. With 200 kilometres of additional transmission licensed and 115 kilometres built, 2022 has been a record year on both accounts, Brick added. Amprion plans to invest up to twelve billion euros in its onshore grid and ten billion euros in its offshore grid expansion by 2027, the CEO said. “A new phase of the energy transition is beginning, in which we are increasingly moving from planning to implementation. We are currently implementing more projects than ever before”

Amprion is one of four grid operators in the country and manages about 11,000 kilometres of power lines. Together with other grid operators, the company gauged the necessary investments into the grid by 2045, the year by which Germany plans to have become climate neutral, at some 128 billion euros. State funding could play a key part in these plans, as the government has been in talks with the Dutch government to take over grid operator Tennet, which operates a large part of the German network.