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Tennet substation in Schleswig-Holstein: Positive reaction
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
The federal government is apparently about to take over the entire German electricity network, which has so far been owned by the Dutch network operator Tennet.
The company announced on Friday that it wanted to negotiate a complete sale with the federal government - and received a positive reaction: the company's initiative to "explore a complete sale" was welcomed, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics.
They have been talking about a possible participation since October.
The talks were constructive.
The Dutch state-owned company Tennet is one of the four transmission system operators in Germany.
The reason for the intention to sell is the huge investment required for the energy transition.
Tennet-Deutschland is primarily responsible for expanding the north-south lines from the windy coast to southern and western Germany.
Overall, the company puts the equity requirements for the German division at 15 billion euros.
Apparently too much for the Dutch government, which already has to invest ten billion euros to expand the Tennet power grid in its own country.
Now the federal government could provide the necessary funds.
According to Tennet, however, a sale to the federal government has not yet been decided: "Tennet is aware that its sole shareholder has not yet made a final decision and will take the next steps in close cooperation with the government."
It had already become known in May 2020 that the then black-red federal government wanted to take a stake in Tennet, but the SPD and Union disagreed on the size of the stake.
At that time, according to SPIEGEL, the financial requirement was rated much higher, specifically at least 35 billion euros by 2028.
According to the company, Tennet operates 24,500 kilometers of high and extra-high voltage lines in Germany and the Netherlands together.
The German Tennet network area is the largest of the four operators in terms of area and extends in a north-south corridor from the North Sea to the Austrian border.
The German subsidiary is based in Bayreuth.
fdi/dpa