The town of Oranienburg, north of Berlin, is running out of power. The city has grown too quickly in recent years. Heat pumps, wall boxes and the like do not have a connection.
Oranienburg/Berlin – The Brandenburg city of Oranienburg is currently showing how the energy transition can go wrong if it is not planned correctly. “In order to keep the electricity network in Oranienburg stable, the municipal utilities can no longer approve new registrations or increases in the performance of house connections. This applies, for example, to the connection of heat pumps and charging infrastructure,” says a message to citizens on the city’s website these days. In plain language: The local power grid is reaching its capacity limits.
Electricity bottleneck in Oranienburg: City has grown faster than expected
According to the city, the reason for the electricity shortage is the rapid population growth due to immigration and the increased connection of systems such as heat pumps and wall boxes for electric cars. According to its own information, the Oranienburg public utility company requested more capacity from the operator of the substation network over a year ago, but the operator, E.dis, did not respond. The Federal Network Agency now had to be informed of the situation.
Meanwhile, work is also underway to build a new high-voltage network - but it will not be completed until 2026. If the city does not find a solution to the bottlenecks by then, the citizens will have to put new buildings on hold, wall boxes and heat pumps cannot be put into operation - and the establishment of new companies and industries would also be impossible. That would not only be annoying, but would unnecessarily slow down the energy transition.
“The electricity needs of our growing city have evolved enormously, faster than was predicted in the past. This shows the challenge of expanding the infrastructure just as quickly. “We are working hard not to completely slow down urban development, but rather to provide sufficient performance for our large industrial companies, as well as for private house builders,” emphasizes Mayor Alexander Laesicke.
Power supply in Germany is very secure
It cannot be said in general whether other municipalities are threatened with the same fate as Oranienburg. The causes of the problems appear to be omissions that the Federal Network Agency now wants to clarify. “Network operators must upgrade their network proactively in order to fundamentally prevent problems with a lack of capacity,” writes the authority, according to
Welt
. However, the Association of Municipal Companies (VkU) is optimistic that Oranienburg will not be a harbinger: "The legislature has just sharpened the planning instruments for distribution network operators, which should make it easier to avoid forecasting errors in the future," the newspaper quotes a spokesman as saying.
But the people in the country don't have to worry for now. In a study from 2022, the VDE found that the electricity supply in Germany is among the most reliable in the world. According to the study, Germany was even in second place in the world rankings, behind South Korea. The study examined how often and how long there was a blackout per year: an average of 12 minutes in 2021. Nevertheless, the association writes in the press release from April 2022 that the “effort to maintain network and system security” is due to the increase of renewable energies on the grid is increasing. However, this has no influence on the quality of care.
Dynamic electricity tariffs and network fees can stabilize the electricity network
Electricity customers can also make their own contribution to stabilizing the electricity grid. Nowadays, anyone who installs a PV system usually also installs a storage system. According to experts, this is extremely important: According to various reports, anyone who installs a solar system with storage can be between 60 and 80 percent self-sufficient. So: independent of network fluctuations. Of course, this also has a relieving effect on the entire electricity network if many electricity customers essentially supply themselves. Electric cars can also (theoretically at least) serve as large battery storage units that the house can tap into.
According to a study by Agora Energiewende, up to ten percent of total electricity consumption in Germany can be affected by such “household-related flexibilizations”. However, this is only possible if dynamic electricity tariffs and network fees are also used. This allows consumers to align their own electricity consumption with network utilization - which is done with financial incentives (electricity is expensive when the network is heavily loaded). “Dynamic network fees avoid load peaks in the network; “The required network expansion will be feasible at the current pace,” says the study. A major hurdle standing in the way of this lever is the expansion of smart meters, without which dynamic electricity tariffs are not possible.
In Oranienburg the first step is to find a short-term solution. “The municipal utilities, together with the high-voltage network operator E.DIS Netz, are working hard on an interim solution to eliminate the bottleneck until the new substation of the Oranienburg municipal utilities can go into operation. The new building will ensure security of supply in Oranienburg,” says the managing director of the municipal utility, Peter Grabowsky.