- RWE offers to take on systems management of ultra-high voltage grid
- Agreement with foreign transmission system operators to be concluded soon
RWE has today announced it is prepared to take on systems management of the ultra-high voltage grid owned by the four German transmission systems operators. The company could then manage the uniform German control area envisioned by German policymakers and the German Federal Network Agency.
RWE is furthermore offering to coordinate plans for grid expansion in Germany. The grids are to remain the property of the current or future owners of the transmission networks.
Dr. Juergen Grossmann, CEO of RWE AG, said: “We are addressing the policymakers’ call for bundled system responsibility and a uniform German control area. Moreover, we are coordinating the expansion of the grid and thus ensuring the achievement of the Federal Government’s energy policy objectives.”
“Our model offers not only benefits in terms of outage prevention and connectivity of new renewable and decentralised power plants, but also the possibility of flexible and transparent ownership structures”, said Grossmann. “The model is open to European solutions, which we need in a European Union that is continuing to grow together. We invite other transmission operators to cooperate.”
This offer is, however, contingent on conditions that make continued operation of the transmission grid feasible from a business standpoint and place such operation on a sound economic basis.
With regard to this, RWE welcomes the measures announced by the Federal Network Agency on 7 July 2008 regarding interest on investments in new networks. Still unclear, however, are other details that have an impact on the level of total interest. Chief among these is the complete refinancing of energy procurement costs for compensation services (lost energy, balancing energy, compensation for the Federal Act on Granting Priority to Renewable Energy Sources). An acceptable entrepreneurial interest rate on borrowed capital in the incentive-based regulatory system is also essential.
“We want not merely to strengthen German grid cooperation, but also to take the lead in shaping the future European transmission network,” Grossmann continued. RWE Transportnetz Strom GmbH is currently negotiating with transmission system operators based outside Germany on ways to intensify cooperation. Plans include a joint control centre from which grid load and system security in the partners’ transmission networks can be monitored in real time.
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