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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