As of: February 14, 2024, 9:50 a.m
By: Jakob Koch
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Dispute over the electricity route: Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) and Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left).
© IMAGO (2) / Karina Hessland and Rolf Poss
Dark clouds over Thuringia and Bavaria.
Both state governments led by Bodo Ramelow and Hubert Aiwanger are arguing about new power lines.
Munich - Reports about new power lines through Thuringia and Bavaria are creating a bad mood between the neighboring federal states - and calling opponents of the route onto the scene.
Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) surprisingly announced last week that, in addition to SuedLink and SuedostLink, the planned route called SuedwestLink would also bring electricity from northern Germany to Bavaria - if possible via underground cable.
According to current plans, SuedwestLink should actually only continue through Lower Franconia to Baden-Württemberg, without a branch.
Aiwanger rejects criticism from Thuringia's Prime Minister Ramelow
In addition, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, another line (P540) is planned above ground from Schalkau (Sonneberg district) in Thuringia via the Münnerstadt area (Bad Kissingen district) to Grafenrheinfeld (Schweinfurt district).
Aiwanger rejected criticism of the plans from Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left).
“The routes are not planned by the federal states, but by the transmission system operators and the Federal Network Agency,” said the Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister, who is currently causing a sensation with statements about wind turbines, to the German Press Agency in Munich on Tuesday.
The Bavarian state government did not insist on including the line in the plans.
Thuringia's State Chancellery Minister Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (Left) then reiterated Thuringia's criticism and demanded partnership from its neighbors in energy policy as well.
Hoff wrote on
Neighborliness and good cooperation are based on partnership, including in energy policy.
Greetings to Munich.”
The Federal Network Agency is currently keeping a low profile.
“The decision on the nationwide need for expansion in the transmission network will be made with the confirmation of the network development plan in a few weeks,” the authority in Bonn simply announced on Tuesday.
It is not possible to comment on details in advance.
According to the Federal Network Agency, the line is necessary to maintain security of supply in the power grid and to reduce so-called redispatch costs, as the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Munich announced.
Redispatch is the short-term change in the use of a power plant at the request of the transmission system operator in order to avoid network bottlenecks.
Dispute between Ramelow and Aiwanger – “unparalleled audacity”
The plans for further new power lines had caused massive criticism not only from residents in the affected Bavarian regions, but also from the state government in Erfurt.
“The fact that the Bavarian government is planning another power line at the expense of Thuringia and simply has a corridor on our territory is unparalleled audacity,” Ramelow said on Monday.
The plan is shocking, also because the Bavarian government “didn’t even seek a conversation with Thuringia,” said Ramelow, who is currently confronted with ideas about a CDU-Left coalition in Thuringia.
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Regarding the creation of the new route plan, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs said: "The P540 was not proposed by the transmission system operators and is therefore not reflected in the current draft of the network development plan." At the beginning of February, however, the Federal Network Agency subsequently determined the need for this AC line and Bavaria about it informed.
“Why Thuringia knew nothing about the project is beyond our knowledge.”
Citizens' initiatives reject new power lines: no energy crisis
Citizens' initiatives consider further new power lines through Franconia and Thuringia to be oversized.
There is no energy-related need for additional lines, said the Route Opponents Action Alliance and the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Against SuedLink, as well as the Bergrheinfeld Citizens' Initiative.
It is also questionable how the high number of new power line plans should actually be implemented.
However, the managing director of the Federal Wind Energy Association BWE, Wolfram Axthelm, said: “The consumption-intensive federal states in the south, especially Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, do not have sufficient renewable energy capacity to cover their high demand themselves.” They are dependent on it that they could obtain cheap electricity from the eastern and northern federal states.
(dpa/jkk)