Redispatch

How it comes to Redispatch

The energy transition is taking place at two different speeds

Wind farms are being built in the north quicker than the electricity lines that are needed to transmit the electricity to the south and west of Germany, where most of the consumers are located.

The electricity market takes prices into account, but not transmission capacities

When lots of wind electricity is generated in the north, it finds buyers on the market, mostly in the centres of consumption in the south and west. At times, the transmission capacities are not sufficient to carry that electricity. If such a congestion on the grid is imminent, the system operators need to intervene. They initiate generation to be curtailed in the north, before the bottleneck in the direction of transmission, and generation to be ramped up downstream from the congestion. This process is known as redispatch.

Feed-in of electricity from renewables has priority

The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) regulates the expansion of renewables. It stipulates that wind and solar power have priority in terms of purchase and transmission. Electricity from renewables is also remunerated in cases where it has to be curtailed as part of congestion management. At the same time, electricity fed into the grid to remedy the congestion at the instruction of the system operators must be paid for. This electricity is usually generated in conventional power plants. Congestion management is expensive and causes carbon emissions. 

Grid expansion is the most effective way to save on costs and carbon emissions.