German energy ministry mulls trimming feed-in priority for renewables

The German energy ministry considers limiting the feed-in priority for renewable power to reduce the costs of managing grid bottlenecks, Stefan Schulze writes on Spiegel Online. “Green power plants could generally become part of bottleneck management,” an unpublished analysis for the ministry says, according to Schulze. By throttling down wind and solar power supply when the grid is overloaded, costs could be reduced “substantially” as opposed to the current scheme where coal and other fossil power plants are throttled down first, according to the analysis. However, limiting the feed-in priority for green power, a key policy instrument for establishing renewables in the country, would increase carbon emissions from power plants by approximately one percent, it says. Schulze writes that energy and economy minister Peter Altmaier could present a draft law this year to diminish the preferential treatment of renewables. Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock said changing the feed-in priority would damage “a cornerstone of the Energiewende.” She said the government now eyed curbing renewables instead of ensuring nuclear power is no longer supplied in regions with high grid workload and preventing that coal power clogs transmission lines.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The energy transition and the German power grid and the factsheet Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid  for background.