According to press reports, the monitoring report of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) shows that the costs for eliminating network congestion (redispatch and feed-in management) have increased by an estimated 5% in the past year.

"Despite all warnings, the grid expansion did not follow the conversion of our energy system quickly enough," commented BWO managing director Stefan Thimm. “We are now seeing the effects of political errors, restrictive requirements in network planning and acceptance problems. This shows all the more clearly how important a forward-looking network expansion planning is. Network operators need more freedom of choice and fewer restrictions. The procedures also need to be accelerated. This is the only way to reduce future costs for compensation payments ”, Thimm continues.

Politicians are now trying to counter this. The current amendment to the Federal Requirements Plan Act (BBPlG) is to be discussed in the Bundestag this month. The BBPlG plays a central role in network expansion because it is intended to accelerate the approval processes and lists all expansion projects that are classified as “energy-related necessities” on the basis of the 2030 network expansion plan. Their implementation is therefore considered to be urgent. "Unfortunately, these measures don't work overnight," says Thimm.

Background:

In order for our electricity grid to run stable, the supply and demand of electricity must always be in balance. In addition, the power grid's transport capacity is limited. If more electricity is generated than is consumed or if more electricity is fed in than can be transported via the networks, then production must be shut down.

In most cases, network overloads can be resolved by curtailing conventional power plants for a short time. If that alone is not enough, renewable energy systems will also be shut down. So that network bottlenecks do not jeopardize the security of investments in renewable energy systems, the network operators have to pay compensation for electricity from RE systems that they cannot purchase. The compensation claims are borne by the end consumers via the network charges.

The costs shown in the monitoring report do not increase the electricity costs for consumers 1: 1. Because part of these costs is compensated by the reduction of the EEG levy, which is also to be paid by the network user, since plants reduced by feed-in management measures do not receive any remuneration or market premium under the EEG.

Politicians have reacted with various measures, such as the passing of the Grid Expansion Acceleration Act (NABEG) and the Act to Accelerate the Expansion of Power Lines (NABEG 2.0). In the case of the offshore grid levy, the first positive effects of the measures to synchronize offshore wind energy expansion and expansion of the electricity grid have already become apparent. This only recently fell slightly from 0,416 ct / kWh (2020) to 0,395 ct / kWh (from 1.1.2021). (BWO reported)

Overall, despite everything, an enormous reduction in the cost of renewable energies can be observed. The costs for generating offshore wind energy alone have decreased by more than 10% in the last 60 years.