The federal government is pouring billions of euros into network expansion. Now the first results are showing. The network provider Amprion is optimistic.
Dortmund – Just a few weeks ago, the Bavarian Business Association (vbw) gave Germany a poor report regarding the energy transition. “Regardless of whether it is a federal, state or local government: the energy transition needs more speed,” warned Managing Director Bertram Brossardt at a press conference. However, there are positive signals from the transmission system operator Amprion from Dortmund.
The artery of the energy transition – Amprion is setting more pace
In the last financial year, the company was able to achieve a higher pace than originally planned. Investments have more than doubled to a “record value” of almost three billion euros, the company announced in a press release. Amprion wants to invest around 27.5 billion euros in expanding and converting the transmission network by 2028. “The legal measures to accelerate network expansion are having an effect,” said Dr. Hans-Jürgen Brick, CEO of Amprion GmbH. For example, the company was able to start construction of the A-Nord direct current connection a year earlier than planned.
This is a new electricity connection from the coast of Lower Saxony to the Rhineland. In the future, it will be one of the “arteries of the energy transition” and transport electricity that comes from offshore wind farms in the North Sea. A-Nord should be able to transmit an output of two gigawatts; that would meet the needs of two million people. “We are moving into implementation and will complete central projects sooner,” Brick continued. In connection with the Ultranet project, A-Nord is intended to be the first German wind power corridor that brings large amounts of green electricity from the North Sea to the West.
“Balance has been lost” – Amprion wants network fees to be split
Amprion is also concerned about the costs that the energy transition entails. The network operators only increased costs here in April. The end consumer pays more and more. Amprion had announced that its salaries would double for the year, which was partly due to the fact that the announced federal subsidy was no longer available. Because of the budget crisis, a subsidy of 5.5 billion euros fell flat.
Amprion is therefore demanding that the federal government relieve consumers. This should happen by removing the costs for congestion management from the network fees. “Energy is still too expensive in Germany. The balance between climate protection, security of supply and affordability has been lost,” complained the Amprion CEO. Instead, the money for these transformation costs should come from proceeds from the Climate and Transformation Fund. “That would almost halve the network fees and relieve the burden on the economy and consumers quickly and unbureaucratically,” calculated Brick.
Grid bottlenecks lead to additional costs and higher electricity prices
What is meant by congestion management is shown, among other things, by the redispatch measures that the network operator TransnetBW carried out in January. Currently, the power grid cannot withstand an excess of electricity from wind power in the windy north. “Grid bottleneck situations threaten to overload the lines. “That’s why the transmission system operators are regulating the wind farms in the north,” explained TransnetBW.
“If the domestic potential in Germany is not sufficient – as in this case – additional electricity imports from abroad are necessary.” Expert circles then talk about a redispatch. TransnetBW warns: “As long as the network expansion does not keep pace with the expansion of renewable energies, there will be more network bottlenecks, as in previous years.”
As the Federal Network Agency announced, redispatch measures will cost around 3.1 billion euros in 2023. Only after the implementation of projects such as A-Nord or the Suedlink power line can it be expected that a trend reversal in these costs will take place.
Various ideas for reducing network charges
Costs are expected to continue to rise in the foreseeable future. According to a current study written by a scientific team led by economist Veronika Grimm, the cost of electricity is expected to remain high in the long term. By 2040, according to the forecast, electricity costs could still be 7.8 cents per kilowatt hour.
There are many possible solutions. For example, Martin Brudermüller, CEO of the chemical company BASF, has already suggested that consumers should be relieved in other ways. The networks should be available to everyone free of charge - after complete nationalization. The Federal Network Agency, on the other hand, is planning to reform network fees. The idea behind this is to spread the costs across as many shoulders as possible - which should ultimately lead to a cost reduction for the individual.