Germany's Federal Network Agency has initiated a consultation to establish criteria for switchable loads to help reduce the curtailment of renewable energy generation caused by grid bottlenecks.
The agency aims to enable the use of renewable electricity that would otherwise not have been generated due to these bottlenecks, according to Klaus Muller, President of the Federal Network Agency. Muller stated, “We want to enable the use of renewable electricity that would otherwise not have been generated due to grid bottlenecks.”
The consultation seeks to specify criteria for additional electricity consumption that can be assumed by grid operators to allow renewable energy plants to continue producing electricity despite existing grid constraints.
The concept, “Use instead of curtailment 2.0,” is designed to incentivize activating additional electricity consumption in regions with grid relief measures. This is intended to reduce the need to curtail renewable generation due to limited grid expansion and to make renewable electricity more usable.
The Federal Network Agency's definition establishes criteria for characterizing consumption as additional. Three segments are identified for which, under specific conditions, additional electricity consumption can be assumed: the substitution of fossil heat generation with electrical heat generation, the use of grid-connected storage and new electrolysers, and large-scale heat pumps.
Recent amendments to the Energy Industry Act introduced a regulation to reduce the curtailment of renewable energy plants due to electricity-related grid bottlenecks. Section 13k of the EnWG allows transmission system operators to allocate discounted electricity volumes to eligible subscribers, who receive reduced electricity costs for their contribution to congestion relief, without increasing overall congestion management costs for grid users.
