Electricity Network Development Plan 2013 and Offshore Network Development Plan 2013 confirmed
Homann: "56 of the 90 measures proposed are necessary to meet energy supply requirements and have therefore been confirmed"
Year of issue 2014
Date of issue 2014.01.08
The Bundesnetzagentur has confirmed the Electricity Network Development Plan 2013 and the Offshore Network Development Plan 2013. The Plans are based on expansion scenarios for the various energy sources that were widely consulted on and agreed before the new federal government was formed. They therefore do not reflect the changes in energy policy goals resulting from the coalition agreement, such as the revised offshore expansion targets. These changes will be taken into account when drawing up and consulting on the 2014 Plans.
"Reliable and long-term grid expansion planning is one of the objectives of the coalition agreement. This goal will be reflected in our annual process of re-evaluating the requirements on the basis of the prevailing conditions"
, Jochen Homann, Bundesnetzagentur President, explained.
The revised Environmental Report was published together with the Plans. The Report identifies, describes and evaluates the likely environmental impact of the measures set out in the Plans.
"We were able to confirm 56 of the 90 measures proposed by the transmission system operators in the draft Electricity Network Development Plan 2013"
, Homann said. "We have confirmed only those measures that we consider to be absolutely necessary over the next ten or twenty years to guarantee reliable and secure operation of the grid."
The same applies to identifying the lines required to connect offshore wind farms to the grid, as presented for the first time ever in the Offshore Network Development Plan 2013. Eight out of the ten connection lines proposed were confirmed.
"The measures that were not confirmed this time round can, however, be put forward again when the next annual plans are drafted and will then be reassessed in the light of the energy supply and policy conditions applicable at the time"
, Homann explained. Compared with last year's Electricity Network Development Plan, a considerably larger number of measures to reinforce existing lines were confirmed. This reflects the principle that full use should be made of the possibilities for reinforcing or optimising networks before considering new builds. The projects confirmed in the 2013 Plan comprise some 2,800 kilometres of existing lines to be reinforced or optimised and around 2,650 kilometres of new lines.
The processes of identifying the requirements for expanding the extra-high voltage network and drawing up the Environmental Report were accompanied by an eight-week consultation period during which the public had the opportunity to comment on the proposed measures. More than 7,000 responses were received, and the comments were taken into account in the Bundesnetzagentur's final assessment. The majority of the responses concerned specific projects, in particular the expansion projects for Segeberg – Goldshöfe, Emden/Ost – Osterath, Osterath – Philippsburg, Kiel – Göhl, Lauchstädt – Meitingen and Raitersaich – Ludersheim.
This year's assessment resulted in the confirmation of most of the projects already set out in the Federal Requirements Plan Act. This Act is based on the grid expansion requirements identified in the Electricity Network Development Plan 2012 and provides the basis for the upcoming planning procedures for the individual projects. "We expect the first applications for federal sectoral planning to be submitted by the project developers soon"
, Homann said.
The Network Development Plan 2013, the Offshore Network Development Plan 2013, the revised Environmental Report and further information are available on the Bundesnetzagentur's grid expansion website at www.netzausbau.de.