The head of the Federal Grid Agency, Klaus Müller, warned of an increase in the load on Germany’s electricity grid due to an increase in the number of charging stations for private electric vehicles and electric-driven heat pumps. “If a large number of new heat pumps and charging stations continue to be installed, overload problems and local power outages will be feared in the distribution network if we do not act,” said Müller from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.
According to the newspaper’s report, the Bonn authority considers low-voltage local networks to be particularly vulnerable to failure. Therefore, the grid agency has published a paper on key issues providing for temporary rationing of electricity for heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations in times of high grid usage. According to the paper, grid operators must then throttle the systems’ power supply with force and center. According to the report, the electricity rationing plans will come into force on January 1, 2024.
However, Mueller told the newspaper that heaters and chargers should not be completely disconnected from the power supply at critical stages. “We want to ensure a minimum supply at all times.”
Even with electricity rationing, private charging stations will be able to get enough electricity to charge an electric vehicle battery in three hours over a range of 50 kilometers. In addition, according to the report, “continuous, nearly trouble-free operation” should still be possible for a large number of heat pumps.
In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, the CEO of the Düsseldorf Eon energy group, Thomas König, called for the accelerated expansion and modernization of local and regional energy networks. He pointed to many applications to connect new systems and waiting times of up to eight months to connect the systems to the electricity grid. However, investments will be slowed by the lengthy approval process for building procedures that takes up to twelve years. “It’s totally out of the question,” Koenig said.
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