Berlin The CEO of the energy group Eon, Leonhard Birnbaum, warns of bottlenecks in the German power grids. “I fear that we will lag behind the expansion of renewables in many areas,” he said on Tuesday at the Handelsblatt Energy Summit. According to Birnbaum, even if no more renewable energies were added from now on, considerable investments would still be needed to expand the grid sufficiently.
The German power grid is facing what is probably the greatest challenge it has faced in decades. Instead of individual large power plants, more and more smaller ecological plants from all corners of the country are feeding energy into the grid. In contrast to the constantly constant supply from coal, nuclear and gas power plants, there are natural fluctuations.
Green electricity is always produced when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. However, these are not always the times when electricity is actually needed. To ensure that the network is not overloaded, power plants of any type are isolated from the network whenever necessary. If more power is needed again, they can be started up again in a matter of seconds.
These interventions are regulated by the network operators. The costs for so-called feed-in management measures have continued to rise in recent years, also because of the ever-increasing number of wind and solar systems. With the phasing out of nuclear and coal-fired power generation and more and more volatile renewables, the challenges for network operators are likely to increase even more significantly in the coming years.
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According to Birnbaum, the main thing is that the networks are going digital. “Anyone who believes that we cannot operate the networks of the future digitally has not understood the challenges,” says Birnbaum. “Twenty years ago we controlled 100 power plants, now we are heading for four million feeders. You can only manage that digitally.”
“We need to speed up the process”
Birnbaum also acknowledged that digital networks are associated with a risk of cyber attacks. “I’m following the topic of cyber with great concern, it’s going to be one of the core challenges in our industry,” he said. “Everyone has to assume: You will be hacked at some point.” It is important to be able to restore the system afterwards.
Birnbaum sees it as a priority to facilitate the expansion of the networks in Germany. “We have to speed up the procedures, without a doubt,” he said, emphasizing: “If we change the planning law now, it will only have an impact from 2026.” Immediate acceleration of the procedures will not change anything about the expansion backlog in the next three up to four years. “We have to get to it now, and that requires unreasonable demands on certain clientele, such as the green clientele,” says Birnbaum.
In order for green electricity to be distributed in the grid, the transmission grids need to be expanded, on the one hand, through so-called electricity highways, which transport green energy from the windy north to the industrial south when needed. For years, however, progress has been sluggish. According to the latest information from the Federal Network Agency, just over 1,800 kilometers of the planned 12,000 kilometers of power lines have been built. According to the latest calculations of the network development plan, 1,000 kilometers of additional routes still have to be built.
Equally crucial, however, are the distribution grids, which must remain stable even if – as targeted by the federal government – around 15 million electric cars are driving on German roads in 2030. When asked whether the networks would be able to withstand charging so many e-cars at the same time in the future, Birnbaum was optimistic. He said: “Yes, I think we can.”
On the other hand, the Eon boss is concerned about the current discussion about the EU taxonomy, in which the European Commission also wants to classify gas and nuclear power as sustainable. Although nuclear power does not play a major role in Germany, the framework conditions for gas-fired power plants have so far been problematic.
“80 percent and fast is better than 100 percent and never”
“According to the Taxonomy Ordinance, it is not at all clear whether I can build a gas pipeline to a power plant in accordance with the taxonomy,” says Birnbaum. “If the boundary conditions remain the same, it will be difficult.” This also endangers the exit from coal. “If we don’t build the gas-fired power plants, the coal-fired power plants will have to stay longer.”
Birnbaum also warned against too much bureaucracy with regard to German regulations. “We have to get away from this 100 percent madness,” he said. “80 percent and fast is better than 100 percent and never.”
Accordingly, the Eon boss also commented on the subject of energy suppliers. In recent weeks, numerous electricity and gas suppliers have had to stop their deliveries due to the high energy prices on the market – to the chagrin of consumers, who have fallen back on basic tariffs, some of which are very expensive.
However, Birnbaum spoke out against a new authority in Germany that supervises suppliers more closely in order to prevent such cases. “I think we have enough authorities in Germany,” he said. “But the problem is not too few authorities, but that all existing regulations and institutions have allowed the wrong people to roam the market.”
More: Ambitious climate goals, rising energy prices: German industry is calling for help