BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy expects significantly lower costs again for the past year for compensatory measures to combat bottlenecks in the power grid. "After 3.2 billion euros in 2023, the current forecasts are around half that amount," said a ministry spokesperson.
According to the Federal Network Agency, the costs for what is known as grid congestion management totaled just under 1.5 billion euros by the end of November. The "Spiegel" had previously reported on the sharp decline in costs in 2024.
The costs had already fallen significantly in 2023: in 2022, they had amounted to 4.2 billion euros. The funds will be reallocated and paid for by all electricity consumers via the network charges.
The ministry cited a number of reasons for the decline, including grid expansion, higher grid utilization, no extreme weather conditions, and a sharp drop in fuel prices. The final figures will be available at the end of February, the spokesperson said.
The costs arise primarily from so-called redispatch measures. These are interventions by grid operators in the power generation of power plants. The aim is to protect certain sections from overloading.
When congestion is imminent, power plants on the supply side of the bottleneck are instructed to reduce their feed-in. For example, wind turbines in northern Germany are curtailed. At the same time, plants on the other side of the bottleneck have to feed in more. These may be coal- or gas-fired power plants in southern Germany./tob/DP/stw