Electrification at the limit
Sluggish grid expansion is slowing down the energy transition
By Clara Suchy
06/24/2023, 3:09 p.m
The mantra of the German climate targets is being repeated more and more often: by 2030, 80 percent of the energy requirement should be covered by renewable energies. The expansion is progressing slowly. But the much bigger problem lies elsewhere: with the power grids.
A wall box on every garage wall. Photovoltaic systems on every roof in the country. Heat pumps, electrified industry, battery-powered trucks: these are all building blocks of the energy transition. But no matter how many wind farms Germany can build to offer green electricity, it would be useless. Because the fact is: the German power grids are not prepared for the energy transition. “If the number of electric vehicles and heat pumps planned for 2030 were connected now, that would bring the networks to their knees today,” write researchers from the Association of the Electrical and Digital Industry ZVEI.
The association commissioned a study from PWC to examine the state of the German power grids. Accordingly, the investment required to eliminate the performance gaps is estimated at 100 billion euros by 2030. A large sum that would have to be raised within seven years. But a lot needs to be adjusted. Since electricity in Germany is no longer fed solely from central gas and coal-fired power plants, the power grid has had to be adapted. “The generation structure is changing fundamentally,” says Sandra Maeding from the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW).
Power grid must become more flexible
In the past, the transmission grids – i.e. the large electricity highways – transported the electricity from the power plants to the metropolitan areas. There, the distribution networks then brought the electricity to the end consumer. “Today, power generation is much more decentralized,” explains Maeding. The electricity from the wind farms in the North Sea has to be fed in, as does that from the solar systems next to the motorway and on every remote roof. The importance of the smaller distribution networks has therefore increased significantly.
Every time someone wants to put up a PV system on their balcony, it means a change for the power grid. “In the past, the distribution grids were expanded when, for example, a new development area was built,” explains Simon Koopmann, CEO and co-founder of envelio, a company that wants to drive the transformation of the power grid. “But today it’s about a completely different dynamic, with many new grid connections through PV systems, wall boxes and heat pumps that have to be integrated.”
In short: the power grid must be significantly rebuilt for a climate-neutral future. The ZVEI study assumes that 39 “functionalities” must be implemented in the power grid in order to be prepared for the energy transition. This includes the installation of certain sensors or communication channels so that the status of the networks can be recorded at all. However, the power grids must also be converted in such a way that bidirectional charging and storage is possible – so that, for example, electric cars can also be used as flexible electricity storage devices.
At least as important: Digitization
The need for expansion is therefore enormous. However, an inventory is essential beforehand, the ZVEI study authors write in the foreword. “Politicians and network operators shouldn’t concentrate solely on the route expansion, but, at least as importantly, on digitization,” says ZVEI boss Wolfgang Weber in an interview with the FAZ.
Because without advanced digitization, an expansion for the energy transition is difficult to implement. The federal government plans to digitize the power grid by 2030. Smart meters, which measure the consumption of end devices in real time and can transmit them to the operator, are also to be introduced step by step. But in order to achieve the federal government’s goal of covering 80 percent of electricity requirements from renewable energies by 2030, things would have to go much faster.
The operators are already reaching their limits: The sluggish digitization of the grid operators can mean that applications for new PV systems are often only approved months later. Koopmann wants to change that: With envelio, he offers software that helps network operators to digitize their networks and automate processes. “First we are building a digital twin of the network,” explains Koopmann.
With the digital network model, Koopmann and his team then implement the network expansion planning as efficiently as possible. So many PV systems, heat pumps and wall boxes are added every day that operators cannot expand everywhere at the same time. “Our software analyzes where the network expansion is really necessary and where we can perhaps postpone or avoid the expansion because intelligent control is possible,” explains Koopmann.
“Digitization has long since arrived”
The fact that a network needs to be expanded or upgraded is of course nothing new. Network planning also follows clear processes, explains Maeding. “Before digitization, operators may have calculated their networks by hand,” she says. “But of course the ever-advancing digitization has long since arrived in the industry.” So she doesn’t see the problem of the slow expansion in the fact that the network operators don’t want it. “A lot has already been achieved and the challenges are epochal,” explains Maeding. Requests for connection to the grid have risen massively, grid expansion is required to an unprecedented extent and this often goes hand in hand with lengthy approval procedures. The network industry is also suffering from a shortage of skilled workers.
In order to achieve the federal government’s target by 2030, the network expansion must now proceed quickly. “More things have to happen in parallel, we’re just one piece of the puzzle,” says Koopmann. “But I’m convinced that if we quickly bring the existing solutions into widespread use, we can achieve our goals and prepare our infrastructure for a comprehensive energy transition.” He also advocates getting started quickly and not thinking about contingencies forever. Maeding also says that the grid expansion must now be pushed ahead, “because without the grids, renewable energies cannot be integrated at all”.