Image: Ricardo Herrgott
The Verbund subsidiary Austrian Power Grid (APG) will invest around nine billion euros in expanding the electricity network and transmission capacities by 2034. The network operator announced this on Tuesday.
According to Austria’s climate goals, Austria’s total electricity consumption of around 80 terawatt hours (TWh) should come from renewable energies by 2030. The country should achieve climate neutrality by 2040.
This is a mammoth task that, in addition to decarbonizing generation, also involves transforming the entire system to ensure a secure supply, said Gerhard Christiner, CEO of APG: “In order for this to be successful, renewable systems and the supra-regional power grid must be expanded in a coordinated manner as part of overall system planning including a storage strategy become.”
The power grid is currently unable to cope with future requirements. There is a lack of connection capacity for renewable energies. The network operator must now constantly intervene to prevent network overload, APG said. The so-called redispatch requirement rose from 94 million euros in the previous year to 125 million euros this year. In some cases, hydroelectric or wind power plants have to be switched off to prevent overloading.
Inadequate digital networking between the actors is just as much a problem as the lack of overall system planning, says Christiner. According to him, lengthy approval processes also contribute to making the transformation more difficult.
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