With §13 para. 6a of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG), the legislator created a new instrument enabling the transmission system operators to reduce the limitation of renewable energy production in the scope of temporary measures to reduce overloads on the transmission grid. It creates the possibility to enter into agreements with the operators of combined heat and power generating units to reduce the feed-in of active power through the use of electrical heat generating units (Power2Heat) to secure the local heat supply.
By means of the voluntary commitment, the transmission system operators have proposed a procedure to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) and applied for it, so that the targets of §13 para. 6a of the EnWG can be achieved. The Federal Network Agency has stipulated that these voluntary commitments are appropriate and effective.
By using Power2Heat installations to secure the heat supply, combined heat and power generation is to be reduced in favour of higher generation from renewable energy sources in the scope of grid congestion measures within the grid expansion areas, in accordance with §36c para. 1 of the EEG. This requires that this measure makes an effective contribution to reduce the load and is economically efficient. The total Power2Heat capacity to be produced is limited to 2,000 MW for all of Germany.
Procedure for Expression of Interest
For the implementation, 50Hertz is starting a procedure for the expression of interest. This enables operators of CHP installations to express their interest to 50Hertz to enter into an agreement. In the scope of the procedure, 50Hertz verifies whether the legal prerequisites to enter into an agreement are met. To this end, 50Hertz requires certain information from the interested party. The procedure as well as the required information are explained in the document ‘Expression of Interest Utilisation instead of Limitation’ in the download box at the end of the page.
Conclusion of an Agreement
If all legal prerequisites are met in the scope of the procedure for the expression of interest, 50Hertz offers the interested party the opportunity to enter into a corresponding agreement for a period of 5 years. The text of the agreement can be found below.