Germany's energy network regulator Wednesday said that the country's accelerated exit from nuclear energy has considerably increased the risk of power blackouts, calling on the industry to invest in new energy infrastructure to ensure security of supply.
Germany
's
energy network regulator Wednesday said that the country's accelerated exit
from nuclear energy has considerably increased the risk of power blackouts,
calling on the industry to invest in new energy infrastructure to ensure security
of supply.
The Federal Network Agency, known as the Bundesnetzagentur, said that bringing
forward the country's planned gradual exit from all nuclear power to the end of
2022--which included the immediate and permanent shut-down of eight reactors--requires
using all available power production reserves to help balance power demand and
supply to stabilize grids.
The shift in energy policy came after the March nuclear accidents in
Japan
.
The Bundesnetzagentur's president Matthias Kurth and the country's power
transmission grid operators had warned that the shut-down of nearly half of
Germany's 17 reactors--or around 8.4 gigawatt of generation capacity--could
result in large-scale blackouts.
Especially in winter months, when demand is particularly high, grid stability
could be at risk, Kurth said.
Southern Germany, which had relied heavily on nuclear power and where
industrial energy demand is higher than in the north, is particularly prone to
grid instability and blackouts.
"The situation in winter remains manageable, but continues to be
tense," Kurth said.
He added that "extensive efforts" by power transmission grid
operators are required to avoid network failures, and thus power blackouts.
Kurth also said that the situation remains manageable, because the regulator
has identified several thermal power plants that can be operated as reserve
capacity to bridge supply bottlenecks.
The Bundesnetzagentur had considered keeping an idled nuclear power plant as
reserve capacity, but decided against it and instead picked coal, gas and
oil-fired generation capacity.
The regulator said it identified five thermal power plants in central and
southern Germany with a combined output capacity of around 1 gigawatt that will
serve as reserve capacity.
Including a further 1.1 gigawatt of generation capacity that Austrian utilities
pledged to make available, the total reserve equates to the production capacity
of two nuclear reactors.
The costs for operating these power plants as reserve capacity will be covered
via grid access fees, the price network operators charge power producers to
ship their electricity. Grid access fees are an integral part of retail power
prices, which effectively means that consumers will pay for the reserve
capacity.
Kurth also said it was imperative that a planned ultra-high voltage electricity
line in northern Germany will be built as quickly as possible to help remedy
power transportation bottlenecks.
He also promoted the idea of allowing some coal-fired power plants in western
and central Germany to operate longer than previously planned to ensure
adequate power supply.
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