“Grid operators use winter reserve”

German transmission grid operators (TSO) have already had to use large amounts of this year’s "winter reserve", a pool of conventional backup power plants to prevent shortfalls in power supply, according to a joint press release from grid operators. Despite it being a capacity reserve for emergency or extreme situations, the TSOs say they need to use it regularly. “Although supply security is currently not in danger, the burden on power grids and therefore the supply risks are significantly higher compared to previous years, due to increasing feed-in of volatile renewable energies and the elimination of conventional power capacity,” write 50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT and TransnetBW. Due to lagging grid expansion, large amounts of wind power in northern Germany cannot be transported to the country’s industrial south, write the companies. France’s need for power could put an additional burden on Germany’s electricity system, say the grid operators. For this winter, they have secured around 8,300 megawatts of reserve capacity.

Find the press release in German here.

For background, read the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s power grid