EU Probes German Grid 'Restriction'
Update as of Mar.27 - see final sentence
The European Commission (EC) said March 19 it has opened a formal investigation to assess whether TenneT's limitation of power export capacity from Western Denmark into Germany breaches EU antitrust rules.
It added that it and TenneT, a Dutch state-owned high-voltage electricity grid operator that has extensive grid interests also in Germany, are engaged in constructive discussions on commitments to address those concerns.
Both countries and the EC will want to avoid disagreements over infrastructure management, as Denmark gears up for the shut-in of most of its natural gas production from November 2019 until July 2022 when it will be highly dependent for its gas on German imports.
"Ensuring that electricity interconnectors remain fully open to cross-border trade is essential to achieve our overall objective of an efficient, sustainable and competitive energy market," said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
TenneT is the largest of the four German transmission system operators that manage the high-voltage electricity network in Germany. As Germany has expanded its windfarm in the north (including offshore), its grid operators have come under strain in transmitting this abundant power to demand centres in the south - which may explain the alleged capacity restriction on Danish power imports . On occasions, oil-fired power plants in southern Germany and Austria have been brought on line to cover a potential shortfall of power in that region. As a result, German networks regulator BNetzA with working with the country's four grid operators on an expected tender for short-term generation capacity that could kick in during such shortfalls, providing a mix of gas-fired but also other generation and energy storage capacity (see the Germany article in this week's NGW Magazine, Vol.3 Issue 6).
Tennet said the process of capacity calculation are governed by national regulators and "basically utilised by all European transmission system operators in order to calculate the capacity at the interconnectors between states suffering from bottlenecks." It concurred that it was in constructive discussions with the EC about this.
Denamark's state Energinet, which operates that country's national gas and power infrastructure, meanwhile said March 16 it had appointed a new CEO, Thomas Egebo, following the retirement of Peder Ostermark Andreasen after 13 years in the job. Egebo has been Permanent Secretary in the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate - effectively the top public servant in the ministry.
Update Mar.27
The European Commission has invited comments on Tennet's proposed commitments to increase cross border electricity capacity with Denmark, outlined in this press statement, including a minimum guaranteed hourly capacity of 1,300 MW on its interconnector.