{"id":7925,"date":"2022-12-10T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/de\/?p=7819"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:15:19","slug":"special-municipal-energy-transition-between-grid-monopoly-and-the-electricity-market-we-need-active-distribution-grids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/12-2022\/special-municipal-energy-transition-between-grid-monopoly-and-the-electricity-market-we-need-active-distribution-grids\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBetween grid monopoly and the electricity market we need active distribution grids!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photovoltaics and solar thermal energy, wind energy, geothermal energy or biomass: In rural areas, there is enough space for a whole potpourri of renewable energies. That\u2019s why committed municipalities often choose the path of citizen participation and are thus more agile than public utilities and companies. However, current regulations make it difficult for such energy communities. We spoke to Professor Albert Moser from RWTH Aachen University in this regard.<\/h3>\n
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Politicians, grid operators and utilities are facing enormous tasks for the energy transition. The centralized system is reaching its limits and the importance of distribution grids for feeders is growing. What are the biggest hurdles in Germany from a regulatory perspective?<\/h3>\n

In a nar\u00adrow\u00ader sense, the term reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion refers to the reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of the nat\u00adur\u00adal net\u00adwork monop\u00adoly. In this way, we want to pre\u00advent grid fees from becom\u00ading too high and monop\u00adoly returns from being gen\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded. How\u00adever, the reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry frame\u00adwork for the ener\u00adgy tran\u00adsi\u00adtion is much broad\u00ader. This also includes pub\u00adlic plan\u00adning and approval pro\u00adce\u00addures. In Ger\u00admany, for exam\u00adple, these still take far too long\u2014four to five years\u2014for wind tur\u00adbines and are slow\u00ading down the expan\u00adsion of renew\u00adables. With regard to local sup\u00adply, the impor\u00adtant ques\u00adtion of par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpa\u00adtion is still insuf\u00adfi\u00adcient\u00adly clar\u00adi\u00adfied.<\/p>\n

How do you involve cit\u00adi\u00adzens and com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties in the ener\u00adgy tran\u00adsi\u00adtion? As an indi\u00advid\u00adual house\u00adhold, for exam\u00adple, one can oper\u00adate a pho\u00adto\u00advolta\u00adic sys\u00adtem and first cov\u00ader one\u2019s own needs \u201cbehind the meter\u201d and only feed the remain\u00adder into the dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion grid. But what about ener\u00adgy com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties in which sev\u00ader\u00adal par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants want to join forces for a project across meter bound\u00adaries and con\u00adduct ener\u00adgy shar\u00ading? Such projects are dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to han\u00addle under cur\u00adrent reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtions, such as those apply\u00ading to bal\u00adanc\u00ading or net\u00adwork charges. So I would speak less of reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry hur\u00addles and more of reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry gaps.<\/p>\n

Besides closing these regulatory gaps, what else is needed to build the appropriate infrastructure?<\/h3>\n

We need active dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion grids because there is a nat\u00adur\u00adal inter\u00adac\u00adtion between grid monop\u00adoly and the elec\u00adtric\u00adi\u00adty mar\u00adket.<\/p>\n

Can you explain that in more detail?<\/h3>\n

Con\u00adsumers must be able to adapt their behav\u00adior to the volatile sup\u00adply. This works via the price. When the sun is shin\u00ading and the wind is blow\u00ading, elec\u00adtric\u00adi\u00adty is cheap. The heat pump then switch\u00ades on and the car is charg\u00ad\u00aded. Con\u00adverse\u00adly, when there is lit\u00adtle sun and wind, the price of elec\u00adtric\u00adi\u00adty ris\u00ades and behav\u00adior changes accord\u00ading\u00adly. In addi\u00adtion, grid oper\u00ada\u00adtors need sup\u00adport to avoid over\u00adload\u00ading the grids. For exam\u00adple, they must be able to reward those who adjust their con\u00adsump\u00adtion or feed-in when over\u00adloads are immi\u00adnent.<\/p>\n

When all par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants are active\u00adly involved in the mar\u00adket and in sup\u00adport\u00ading the net\u00adwork oper\u00ada\u00adtors, we talk about active dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion net\u00adworks. And these only work with dig\u00adi\u00adti\u00adza\u00adtion, i.e., fast Inter\u00adnet and smart meters for seam\u00adless data col\u00adlec\u00adtion and intel\u00adli\u00adgent con\u00adtrol based on this data.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbundling pro\u00adhibits net\u00adwork oper\u00ada\u00adtors from oper\u00adat\u00ading stor\u00adage facil\u00adi\u00adties. How\u00adev\u00ader, they can already use third-par\u00adty stor\u00adage facil\u00adi\u00adties for a fee.\u201d
\nProf. Albert Moser, RWTH Aachen<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can such concepts for active distribution networks be implemented with the current network charge structures?<\/h3>\n

In prin\u00adci\u00adple, con\u00adsump\u00adtion-based charges stand in the way of active par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpa\u00adtion in the mar\u00adket, as they do not reflect actu\u00adal per\u00adfor\u00admance-based net\u00adwork usage. The sys\u00adtem we have today is also a result of a lack of smart meters. This main\u00adly affects res\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial cus\u00adtomers who have only one meter and no reg\u00adis\u00adtered pow\u00ader meter\u00ading.
\nToday, the only basis for billing is the kilo\u00adwatt hours con\u00adsumed, regard\u00adless of whether these are called up even\u00adly over the year at low pow\u00ader or all at once at high pow\u00ader. How\u00adev\u00ader, the grid must be designed to han\u00addle the peak loads. In this respect, our cur\u00adrent billing sys\u00adtem is unfair because it is not source-based. The sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion is dif\u00adfer\u00adent for large con\u00adsumers. They already have a mixed sys\u00adtem con\u00adsist\u00ading of a capac\u00adi\u00adty charge and a demand charge.<\/p>\n

Apart from smart meters, don\u2019t operators of municipal grids also need the ability to store renewable energy themselves and feed it back in when needed to ensure grid security?<\/h3>\n

Yes, that would be the clas\u00adsic way to sta\u00adbi\u00adlize the net\u00adworks. But today\u2019s reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry environment\u2014through so-called unbundling\u2014prohibits net\u00adwork oper\u00ada\u00adtors from own\u00ading and oper\u00adat\u00ading stor\u00adage facil\u00adi\u00adties. Grid oper\u00ada\u00adtion is strict\u00adly sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded from pow\u00ader gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and stor\u00adage. How\u00adev\u00ader, net\u00adwork oper\u00ada\u00adtors can use third-par\u00adty stor\u00adage facil\u00adi\u00adties for a fee. Var\u00adi\u00adous con\u00adcepts are being dis\u00adcussed in this regard or are already being imple\u00adment\u00aded.<\/p>\n

How else can legislators support municipalities in regard to decentralized energy supply?<\/h3>\n

The delim\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion between a reg\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded net\u00adwork monop\u00adoly and free com\u00adpe\u00adti\u00adtion in the con\u00adtext of unbundling should be inter\u00adpret\u00aded less strict\u00adly. For exam\u00adple, stor\u00adage facil\u00adi\u00adties or charg\u00ading sta\u00adtions owned by the net\u00adwork oper\u00ada\u00adtors can make per\u00adfect sense in order to pro\u00admote net\u00adwork secu\u00adri\u00adty or to achieve the nation\u00adwide deploy\u00adment of charg\u00ading sta\u00adtions.<\/p>\n

Sim\u00adi\u00adlar\u00adly, the reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry frame\u00adwork should more strong\u00adly enable ener\u00adgy shar\u00ading among ener\u00adgy com\u00adpa\u00adnies. This pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly involves sev\u00ader\u00adal peo\u00adple pro\u00adduc\u00ading, stor\u00ading, con\u00adsum\u00ading and sell\u00ading ener\u00adgy across prop\u00ader\u00adty bound\u00adaries. Aus\u00adtria has already enact\u00aded cor\u00adre\u00adspond\u00ading reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtions in this area which have led to a wave of ener\u00adgy com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties being found\u00aded there.<\/p>\n\n

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ABOUT THE PERSON<\/h5>\n
\n

\"energy<\/p>\n

Pro\u00adfes\u00adsor Albert Moser<\/strong> is Head of the Insti\u00adtute for Elec\u00adtri\u00adcal Sys\u00adtems and Net\u00adworks, Dig\u00adi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion and Ener\u00adgy Eco\u00adnom\u00adics at RWTH Aachen Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty and a mem\u00adber of the Sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic Work\u00ading Group for Reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry Issues of the Fed\u00ader\u00adal Net\u00adwork Agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ener\u00adgy com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties suf\u00adfer from reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adto\u00adry gaps, says Prof. Albert Moser in this inter\u00adview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-12-2022"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7925"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8115,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925\/revisions\/8115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onload.reinhausen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}