“Austria and Germany: agreement on common framework for congestion management”

German and Austrian energy regulators have agreed to cap peaks in the exchange of power from October 2018 to reflect lagging grid development between the two countries, announced Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) and E-Control in separate press releases. "We expect the congestion management scheme to provide noticeable relief in the context of re-dispatch actions,” said Jochen Homann, president of BNetzA. This would bring down costs for German power consumers. In the future, up to 4,900 megawatts can be allocated as long-term capacity. This was equivalent to about half of Austrian consumption in peak periods, said E-Control. Action became necessary in the common power price zone because Austrian electricity consumers often bought more power from German providers than the grid could transport, according to the German economy ministry. This led to costly re-dispatch measures to deal with the congestion. The agreement followed months of negotiations after BNetzA had announced last year that it would split the common price zone.

Find the BNetzA press release in English here and E-Control’s press release in English here.

For background read the CLEW articles Loop flows: Why is wind power from northern Germany putting east European grids under pressure? and Europe's largest electricity market set to split.