IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2014 - 38

The share of RESs in German power consumption
has now grown to 25% and is even above 35% in the 50Hertz
grid area in northern and eastern Germany.
as a matter of law. In addition to
the expansion of the ac grid, mea90%
Renewables in Germany 2012
80%
sures for grid reinforcement by
80%
Feed in
135 TWh
means of new corridors using dc
70%
-Wind
46 TWh
power lines were identified and
60%
50%
-Photovoltaics
27 TWh
discussed in the course of a broad
50%
and transparent debate with variPercentage
23%
35%
40%
ous members of civil society (see
Number of
>1.1 Mio.
30%
figure 2). as regards acceptance
Facilities
23%
20%
of grid expansion, a great number
Costs of EEG
20.4 Mrd. €
10%
of various in-depth information
10%
EEG
52.77 €/MWh
meetings and debates have been
0%
Contribution
held with stakeholders and citizens in the regions involved.
(a)
(b)
second, despite the continued
growth
of renewables, 50hertz
figure 1. German energy production (a) already boasts a high renewables percentand
its
fellow tsOs have to
age, with (b) a rising trend.
maintain the same high level of
security of supply as before. In
addition
to
real-time
cooperation
between tsOs and dsOs,
other hand, we are faced with a growing number of actors in
the electrical system, such as res installation operators and online data exchange, and the need on the part of the grid
forecast services. this in turn leads to an increase in the com- operator to develop more direct steering capabilities for the
plexity of market processes, which are regularly redesigned, decentralized res units, it is also key to reinforce eurothus creating a greater margin for errors. One example is the pean system security initiatives such as Coreso and the tsO
more frequent occurrence of balancing group deviations, security Cooperation (tsC) in central europe.
third, a new market design is required, as massive inflows
which eventually require more effort on the tsO's part to remedy. european power trading is likewise affected, as insuffi- from res units on the electricity market act to push down
cient interconnection capacity is available and unplanned load wholesale prices, thus limiting the profitability of conventional power plant operation. It is therefore important to proflows are affecting available capacities.
another specific obligation of German tsOs is perform- vide adequate capacity mechanisms, as conventional power
ing the financial settlement activities required by the renew- plants with flexible feed-in will still be needed for some time
able energy sources act (eeG), as trustees. Volumes for 2013 to come. the current energy-only market is sending market
already amount to €20 billion. If the current eeG surcharge participants appropriate short-term signals while also ensurand the revenues from selling the electricity from renewables ing the most cost-effective current power plants are active,
prove insufficient to finance the eeG compensation that must but it is sending inadequate long-term signals, which are
key for new investments. In any case, the new market design
be paid to operators, a liquidity problem can arise.
should be oriented towards the european market.
finally, one must ensure that electricity costs do not go
Current Answers
through
the roof, given the fact that this would obviously
first, Germany urgently needs more electricity transport
capacity from north to south. to this end, legislators have severely hamper social acceptance of the energy transition.
decided on a number of measures in the past few years to Cost debates therefore need to be made transparent: each
speed up the expansion and conversion of the transmission separate cost driver or cost element that adds to the total
grid while at the same time increasing the degree of stake- price must be identified clearly for each consumer group. In
holder participation and transparency. In addition to the Grid addition, both social welfare and economic factors need to
expansion acceleration act, these measures also include the be considered as decisions are made about how to allocate
federal requirement Plan act, adopted in the summer of costs among consumer groups. this includes the fair alloca2013, which has established Germany's transmission needs tion of grid costs.
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Development Goals-Renewables in Germany

ieee power & energy magazine

march/april 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2014