I was lucky enough to be able to attend the conference on future electricity grids (Tagung Zukünftige Stromnetze) which took place January 24-25, 2024, at Novotel Am Tiergarten, Berlin. It featured speakers from politics, industry, regulatory authorities as well as researchers. It provided many impulses also for our research activities at the DLR-Institute of Networked Energy Systems.
It is no exaggeration to say that this event is an important annual meeting place for key players in the energy sector with the core topic of the future development of the German electricity grids. Also, a roadmap for the future hydrogen grid was presented by gas transmission operator OGE.
Some takeaways from the perspective of a grid modeler:
- As one Tennet representative stressed, we can expect enormous additional demand for reactive power compensation systems due to the shutdown of many conventional power plants, but also due to a generally higher grid load.
- State Secretary Dr. Philipp Nimmermann announced that reactive power from RE plants would be subject to regulatory treatment still this year, meaning that operators of PV systems will soon be able to provide reactive power to the grid. Next year, privision of spinning reserve will be tackled as well.
- A TransnetBW representative reminded me that system stability will become an independent planning product.
- The German regulatory agency (BNetzA) has inspired me to think about future grid modeling principles. One aspect is that loads will no longer be fixed but mostly be controllable in the future. What is the most practical way to represent such flexible loads in large-scale grid models?
- Also the resilience of our future energy system was addressed: What is the right social compromise between security of supply and inferred infrastructure costs? I personally think we could very well live with a slightly higher SAIDI here in Germany which stands very well in international comparison, as long as it keeps the costs of the energy transition manageable.
In our own contribution (poster and proceedings), we reported from our progress in evaluating and developing model coupling methods and applying them to realistic models for the future electricity and hydrogen grids of Northwest Germany. To start off, we have implemented a coupled power-hydrogen test system with the Python-based tools PyPSA, PandaPower and PandaPipes.
One objective of our preliminary work done last year was to get an overview of which grid models (test systems and models of real grids) exist and which coupling methods are used. We also identified a lack of integrated electricity-gas test systems. The publication of a validated coupled hydrogen-electricity test system could become a secondary objective of our ongoing work.
I can recommend the conference for all who want to stay up-to-date with the energy transition in Germany or establish new contacts within the electricity sector. We are generally represented by at least one colleague each year.
Proggy Pal 