Is Germany's grid renewables ready?

Michael Jesberger, Chief Operating Officer of TransnetBW, explains how Germany's grid has been prepared for the influx of renewable generation and where more work still needs to be done.

In an exclusive interview with Janet Wood, Jesberger explained that the generation and consumption landscape is changing dramatically leading to a change in a grid topology.

"Instead of thermal or nuclear distributed over the country, we will now have one large wind farm in the north of Germany, and the energy will need to be brought down south."

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In order to manage power distribution and minimise grid congestion, Germany is implementing projects such as SuedLink, which - at a length of 750 kilometres - will be the largest transmission cable in the network.

TSOs are also installing reactive power electronics for flexibility and developing new technologies such as grid boosters that help increase the utilisation rate of existing overhead lines.

Despite the new projects and technologies in the pipeline, Jesberger emphasises that without faster permitting processes and effective load balancing on the consumption side, grid congestion is here to stay.