Network stability: power failures due to too much photovoltaic?

At Easter and Pentecost, power grid experts do not expect large-scale power outages due to too much solar power even in sunny weather. The households in Germany should not be concerned that there would then be critical situations, emphasizes the head of system management networks at the transmission system operator Amprion, Frank Reyer. This also applies to so -called light wires when there is additional wind in sunny weather and even more renewable electricity is generated.

Background: In order for the power grid to be stable, as much electricity must always be fed in as is used up. Experience has shown that electricity consumption in Germany is low at Easter and Pentecost because many factories stand still. On the other hand, solar power generation has increased: Last year, numerous new photovoltaic systems were put into operation in Germany, but only the larger ones can be controlled.

According to the Federal Association of Solar Economy, the so -called extension was 17.3 gigawatts, which corresponds to the performance of 17 large power plants of conventional design. AMPRION, together with the three other transmission network operators in Germany, is responsible for the overland lines and the stability of the entire electricity system.

Amprion does not exclude local power outputs due to overload

However, Amprion does not want to exclude local power outages due to too much solar power for the future. If there are a power surplus in regions with a lot of solar power feed and little consumption, the larger solar systems would initially be removed from the network from the network operator, explains the company.

Only if that is not sufficient would power lines be switched off in an emergency, to which consumers are connected. “In this case, households in a certain region could also be affected by electricity shutdown in time,” said Reyer. However, this is probably only limited to a few hours in the lunchtime. However, this has never happened, and you will work with distribution network operators to avoid this in the future.

According to Rey, Amprion is currently developing an early warning system to be well prepared for such situations. In the future, you want to inform distribution network operators and authorities with several days about possible critical situations.