Federal Network Agency wants lower electricity fees for wind power regions
Lower fees for regions with a lot of wind power? Bundesnetzagentur President Klaus Müller has announced an electricity price reform for this purpose. According to an interview in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ), there is a bill in the Bundestag that would authorize the Federal Network Agency to introduce “fair network charges”. As soon as the law has been passed, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) wants to make a proposal for the reform.
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Relief for energy transition pioneers
As Müller explained, the expansion with renewable energies must be rewarded and regions that are active in this respect must not be additionally burdened. Accordingly, northern Germany and other regions that have turned to the expansion of renewables would benefit in particular from a new regulation.
Protests against a reorganization of grid fees and the introduction of different electricity price zones are known from southern Germany and especially from Bavaria, which has pushed relatively little wind power expansion. Müller explained to the NOZ: “In fact, regions that rely particularly on wind power are particularly heavily burdened financially. I don’t meet any energy ministers in the federal states who still approve of this historically grown system. Finally, regions in southern Germany are also affected, in which many wind turbines are set up and connected to the grid.”
Müller can understand the current frustration of people in wind power regions and sees good opportunities for the draft law in the Bundestag. “As soon as the law is passed, we will make a proposal for the reform. My impression is that the energy ministers of all federal states are behind it. Because it is obvious that we should reward the expansion of renewables.”
Speed increase still necessary
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It is also clear that the “expansion of wind, solar and biomass systems, including the grids, must be significantly accelerated”. This means that the hurdles for approval and construction must be lowered further and “monument and nature conservation must also contribute”.
If municipal authorities, states and the federal level would speed up, it would pay off in “cents and euros”. Because of the hitherto insufficient power grid expansion, such as the delayed construction of the Südlink power line, “billions of euros have been incurred in completely senseless costs for citizens and companies for years.” There is still a lot to do here.
The so-called “redispatch” is expensive: At times, expensive power plants have to run in the south because cheap wind power from the north cannot be transported to the south due to a lack of capacity. The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) estimates the total costs of “congestion management” in the German power grid for the year 2021 at almost 2.3 billion euros, of which 590 million are for redispatch. According to BDEW, the majority of these redispatch costs were incurred in the area of the network operator Tennet in Bavaria.
Hydrogen core network under construction
Müller sees the development of the hydrogen core network as well positioned. According to his statement, the tenders for the required power plants will come soon. The EU gave the green light for the power plant strategy from the Federal Ministry of Economics. “As soon as we produce hydrogen with excess electricity and pass it on, we’ll have a better grip on the unsolved storage problem,” says Müller.
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