2024-04-19 13:38:24
A worrying report: Oranienburg has imposed a ban on new electricity connections. The reason for this is said to be, among other things, new heat pumps. The Federal Network Agency contradicts this.
The Brandenburg city of Oranienburg caused an uproar with this news: the city’s power supply has been exhausted. Additional house connections to the power grid are not possible with the municipal utilities. However, according to the Federal Network Agency, this is not permitted.
“Among other things, the strong economic growth, the influx of new residents to Oranienburg and the increased installation of heat pumps have led to the increased demand for electricity,” the municipal utilities write in their statement. The last point in particular raises questions: The heat pumps, which were considered an essential part of the heating law by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) last year, are now said to be responsible for capacity bottlenecks. Does this endanger the German energy transition?
Heat pumps play only a minor role
The Federal Network Agency is currently examining the Oranienburg case. But the first statement states: “The new needs are particularly due to industry, commerce and new building areas. The expansion or connection of heat pumps or wallboxes only plays a subordinate role.” The Federal Network Agency is not aware of any similar cases, it said when asked by t-online.
The reason for the connection stop is a capacity bottleneck at the high-voltage to medium-voltage substation, triggered by the city’s strong growth. Stadtwerke Oranienburg confirmed to the Federal Network Agency that the higher demand was “recognized far too late and therefore passed on far too late” to the network operator E.DIS. A problem that goes back to “planning that was years late” and is due to the individual situation.
Commercial boom in Oranienburg
The city has nine commercial and industrial areas in which new companies have settled in recent years. The film manufacturer Orafol and the pharmaceutical company Takeda are known nationally. Last year, Oranienburg was able to collect 55.6 million euros from the trade tax of the companies located there. Together with Henningsdorf and Velten, Oranienburg forms the “regional growth core” of Brandenburg.
Energy economist Claudia Kemfert told MDR that Oranienburg had planned incorrectly. The bottleneck has nothing to do with the fact that Germany is running out of electricity, but rather that the city recognized the increased electricity demand too late and designated construction areas without consulting the grid suppliers. Given the strong economic growth and the associated influx, “the city should have known this beforehand.” The failures in Oranienburg cannot be blamed on the heating transition.
Home builders have to pay for it
The electricity problem will probably have to be borne by the house builders, because as the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung” (MAZ) reports, the installation of heat pumps in new buildings should not be implemented. This is a hard blow for those who wanted to rely on more environmentally friendly energies.
According to its own information, the Oranienburg public utility company provides 325,000 kWh of electricity every day. That would be around 120 million kWh per year. For an apartment of 100 to 250 square meters, a heat pump with average consumption requires around 40 kWh per square meter per year, according to the heating mirror. According to the Federal Statistical Office, heat pumps were installed in 60 percent of completed single- and two-family houses across Germany in 2022, much less often in multi-family houses (35.8 percent).
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Network operator must find an interim solution
A new substation for Oranienburg is already under construction, but is not scheduled to go online until the end of 2026. That is why the Federal Network Agency is calling on municipal utilities to find short-term solutions to enable new connections. The decision for the new plant was made last summer. However, there was strong criticism, particularly directed at the former municipal utility managing director Alireza Assadi. His contract was terminated at the end of September 2022 because he was said to have lacked leadership qualities, reports “MAZ”. In addition, he did not react in a timely manner to the increasing demand for electricity.
Network operators are obliged to connect those requesting a connection to their network. As an interim solution, the responsible authorities are currently examining the installation of battery storage and generation systems as well as agreements with major customers. “The process clearly shows how important forward-looking network planning is,” says the Federal Network Agency. Stadtwerke Oranienburg has so far left a request from t-online unanswered.