FALCON POWERS – The German government is planning to accelerate the expansion of the electricity grid to achieve “secure and affordable” electricity supplies and to eliminate “bottlenecks in electricity supplies within the German grid”. This will be done through two major new power lines to transport offshore wind power.
The German Ministry of Economics reported on Saturday (June 29, 2024) that the federal government in Berlin intends to significantly accelerate the expansion of the country’s electricity grids. In response to a question from the German Press Agency (DPA), the ministry said that the construction of several new transmission lines is expected to be expedited for this purpose.
The Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper had reported on the planned changes to what is known as the Federal Requirements Plan Act, which is expected to be adopted in the Bundestag (German parliament) next Friday. Lucas Koller, the energy policy expert from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), explained that the main goal of this amendment is to enable the electricity generated in northern Germany to be transported to the south and west of the country more quickly in the future.
He pointed out that the amendment relates to two transmission routes that are expected to be built more quickly. These are the Northeast Coupling Line, which will transport electricity from Schleswig-Holstein to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the Rhine-Main Coupling Line. Koller explained that the Rhine-Main Coupling Line will help transport electricity from Lower Saxony to southern Germany better in the future.
Koller, who holds the position of deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, added: “We can only achieve secure and affordable electricity supplies through the rapid expansion of the electricity grids.” He said that building these two new routes as quickly as possible is “absolutely the right decision”.
The Green Party, the coalition partner in the German government, expressed its support for this plan. Ingrid Nestle, the Greens’ spokesperson for energy and climate protection, told the DPA: “We will all benefit greatly from the grid expansion.”
