Start of consultation on the "Use, don't curtail 2.0" determination
Year of issue 2024
Date of issue 2024.04.15
The Bundesnetzagentur has launched a consultation on a determination to specify the criteria that switchable loads must meet to be additional and therefore able to reduce network congestion.
"We want to enable the use of renewable electricity that would otherwise not be produced because of network congestion. The aim of the determination is to reduce the amount of renewable electricity that has to be curtailed due to network congestion,"
said Klaus Müller,
President of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Determination on specifying the criteria with respect to electricity consumption additionality
The Bundesnetzagentur is specifying the practical criteria for assuming additional electricity consumption, which can be used by the network operators to allow renewable energy installations to continue producing electricity despite existing network congestion.
The legally regulated concept of "Use, don't curtail 2.0" is intended to provide an incentive to activate additional electricity consumption in what are known as relief regions. The aim of this is to limit the current need to reduce renewable electricity caused by a lack of network expansion and to make renewable electricity usable. This can only work if there is additional demand for electricity that has the effect of relieving congestion.
The Bundesnetzagentur's determination will specify the criteria that characterise additional consumption. In addition to general requirements, three segments will be determined for which additional electricity consumption can be assumed with sufficient certainty and under specific conditions:
- the substitution of fossil heat generation with electrical heat generation
- the deployment of grid-connected storage plants
- the construction of new electrolysers and large-scale heat pumps.
Background
In the latest amendment to the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) a new arrangement was introduced that allows for reducing the curtailment of renewable energy generation in the case of network congestion. Section 13k of the EnWG, which was added for this purpose, provides for the four transmission system operators to distribute electricity volumes to authorised subscribers at a favourable price. The subscribers receive reduced price electricity in return for their contribution to easing congestion, which overall does not increase the costs of congestion management for network users.
This should secure the success of this approach of making the most possible use of renewable energy's potential. This tool is not a substitute for the swiftest possible needs-based grid expansion. Rather it is intended to mitigate the consequences of any temporary and still existing network congestion.
Next steps
Responses to the consultation can be submitted up to 6 May 2024. The draft determination and explanatory information have been published online at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/nsa (in German).
The operative introduction of the measures is initially incumbent upon the transmission system operators, who have submitted a relevant implementation concept for a trial period to the Bundesnetzagentur for examination. From 1 April 2025 the legal arrangements will also provide the distribution system operators with the possibility of introducing the measure.