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Drought in Europe: Now there is also a risk of power shortages

2022-08-17T09:11:31.169Z


Drought in Europe: Now there is also a risk of power shortages Created: 08/17/2022, 11:06 am By: Lisa Mayerhofer The drought in Europe is now also endangering the power supply. An expert warns that electricity could become tight even faster than gas. Munich – The summer heat not only ensures that the German gas storage tanks fill up better – it also throws the European electricity supply out o


Drought in Europe: Now there is also a risk of power shortages

Created: 08/17/2022, 11:06 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The drought in Europe is now also endangering the power supply.

An expert warns that electricity could become tight even faster than gas.

Munich – The summer heat not only ensures that the German gas storage tanks fill up better – it also throws the European electricity supply out of balance.

High temperatures and drought put the power plants in Europe under pressure in several ways.

Expert: "Immense burden on power generation"

Alexander Weiss, head of global energy consulting at McKinsey, warns of this in the

Handelsblatt

.

"It is possible that we in Germany will have an electricity shortage before a gas shortage," he told the business newspaper.

"All conceivable factors come together, which together represent an immense burden for the electricity generation system." Because: The heat and low water in European rivers not only affect nuclear power plants and waterworks, but also electricity generation from coal.

Europe is working together on the electricity supply.

However, there are currently problems with power generation in several European countries, some of which also supply Germany with electricity.

This is not only due to the heat and drought in Europe, but also to the fact that some governments overslept the energy transition or took care of the maintenance work or modernization of their power plants too late.

France in the energy crisis: Germany helps with electricity

France, which relies almost exclusively on nuclear power for electricity generation, is particularly affected.

The country, which is actually considered a reliable electricity supplier, now has to import more electricity from Germany than it exports, which means that electricity prices continue to rise.

The problem: more than half of France's nuclear reactors are currently not running.

As a spokeswoman for the energy company EDF told the German Press Agency, only 27 of the 56 reactors are available.

This is due to extensive planned and temporary maintenance work, some of which had to be postponed due to the corona pandemic.

In addition, due to the persistent heat, there is a water shortage across the country and many nuclear power plants that are still running have had to be shut down due to concerns about the cooling water supply.

Because many power plants use the water from the adjacent rivers for cooling and later feed it back again.

Depending on the location, the water that is returned to nature must not exceed a certain temperature in order not to overheat the rivers.

Although more and more nuclear power plants have been granted special permits for higher temperatures, the electricity supply situation remains tight and France has to import electricity.

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The nuclear power plant in Flamanville, France.

© Charly Triballeau/AFP/dpa

Drought in Europe: Hydroelectric power plants produce less electricity

The lack of water is not only slowing down the nuclear power plants, but also the waterworks.

Italy, which has been hit hard by drought and extreme heat, is particularly affected.

The country gets a fifth of its electricity from hydroelectric power stations, which are mostly found in the mountains of northern Italy.

Hydroelectric power stations on the Po River, which was threatened with drying out, had to be shut down completely.

From January to May this year, electricity production from hydropower fell by 40 percent compared to the previous year, the water supply association Utilitalia said when asked by AFP.

The reason: not enough snow fell in winter and the ever-shrinking glaciers release less and less water.

The water levels are also low in the far north: the reservoirs in Norway are only 68 percent full – almost ten percentage points below the normal level at this time of year, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Energy, according to the

Handelsblatt

.

The probability of a power shortage is still low.

The problem: The reservoirs are considered a security for the European electricity supply, but Norway is now working on a way of being able to limit electricity exports when levels are low.

The countries that want to import the electricity, such as Germany, would then lose out.

According to Eddie Rich, head of the International Hydropower Federation, more investment in hydropower is needed: "Most of Europe's hydropower park is over 30 years old, so upgrading existing assets would be an easy first win," he told

Handelsblatt

.

Germany: low water makes coal transport difficult

Germany's electricity production is also affected by the prolonged dry period: the low water levels in German rivers severely restrict freight transport by ship - and Germany's coal-fired power plants are dependent on this.

“Inland waterway vessels are currently operating at minimal capacity, if at all.

Switching from inland waterways to rail and road will be difficult this summer because of the bottlenecks on the rails, the corona pandemic and the lack of drivers,” says Holger Loesch, Deputy General Manager of the Federation of German Industries, describing the situation.

“The political plans to temporarily rely more on coal in view of the gas crisis are being thwarted by massive transport bottlenecks.

In addition to coal transport, fuel supply also depends on transport via waterways.”

The Federal Ministry of Transport therefore announced more precise forecast models on Monday in order to be able to better control transports to coal-fired power plants, for example.

At the same time, the government is planning a regulation to prioritize energy transport in the near future.

"We have to face the fact that in the long term we have to be prepared for extreme low water situations due to climate change," said Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) of the

Rheinische Post

.

The problem could therefore get worse in the future.

After all, there is a ray of hope in the European power supply: The electricity shortage in France is currently being intercepted primarily by photovoltaic power from Germany.

This has peaked in recent weeks, dwarfing France's meager nuclear power production.

However, photovoltaic electricity cannot fully meet the demand.

The problem in Europe: France and Germany are not the only ones who have not pushed ahead with the expansion of renewable energies energetically enough and at the same time have either not modernized the old power plants or have even shut them down.

(lma/dpa/AFP)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-17

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