The upside of the seemingly perfect summer in Germany has been the high production of solar power from PV plants, with PV feed into grids reaching record highs in July and matching up to nuclear power. However, the downside has been the stress on the power grid.
The high PV capacity produced by plants in the north of Germany, the increasing renewable electricity exports to South-Eastern Europe and the power shortages in Poland have required cross-border intervention, in order to keep power grids stable. According to 50Hertz managing director, Dirk Biermann, the current grid, which has been bursting at its seams thanks to the heatwave, has already cost the consumers $27.73 million.
Given the current situation, conventional power plants in the eastern parts of Germany have had to reduce power production, in some cases, drastically. The operators would thus have to be compensated. The burden of the network charges will in turn be bourne by the consumers. Transmission system operators have already forked out around $2.78 million daily as a result of the heatwave. Biermann is expecting around $555 million to be spent in total this year, nationwide, to keep the grid stable.
Translated and edited by Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger
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