A growing city that is consuming more and more electricity and is now reaching its limits: Oranienburg is becoming a symbol of poor planning for the energy transition. The Federal Network Agency is concerned.
Berlin – Within a week, the city of Oranienburg on the outskirts of Berlin has moved to the center of the debate about the energy transition. The stumbling block was a message from April 11th on the city's website, which informed citizens that new network connections were no longer possible. “In order to keep the electricity network in Oranienburg stable, the municipal utilities can no longer approve new registrations or increases in the performance of house connections. This applies, for example, to the connection of heat pumps and charging infrastructure.”
The topic is of course quickly picked up
in the media, starting with Die
Welt
- we also reported on the case. The question is raised as to whether the same could happen to other municipalities and cities? Is there a risk of running out of electricity in Germany?
Federal Network Agency reacts: electricity bottleneck in Oranienburg “unacceptable”
To be clear: no. This is also emphasized by the Federal Network Agency, which wants to investigate the incident in Oranienburg. “The Federal Network Agency has no comparable cases,” says Der
Spiegel
. The present case is also “unacceptable”. Network operators are legally obliged to upgrade the electricity network in a timely and proactive manner so that exactly this situation does not occur. There are many indications that Oranienburg miscalculated its planning. “The electricity needs of our growing city have developed enormously, faster than was predicted in the past,” says the message on the city website.
The Federal Ministry of Economics, led by Robert Habeck (Greens), also points out the legal obligation of network operators: “The operator of the electricity supply network and the municipal utilities must keep pace [with population growth],” Spiegel quotes
a
spokesman as saying. “There is enough electricity available – but network operators and municipal utilities must ensure that the electricity arrives where it is needed.”
The city has also commissioned the construction of a new high-voltage network, but far too late, so it will not be completed until 2026. A temporary solution must therefore be found before commissioning.
The Association of Municipal Companies (VkU) is meanwhile optimistic that Oranienburg will not be a harbinger: “The legislature has just sharpened the planning instruments for distribution network operators, which will make it easier to avoid forecasting errors in the future,” Die
Welt
quoted a spokesman as saying.
Debate about the energy of the future: two camps face each other
However, the incident in Oranienburg ties in seamlessly with the debate about the future of our energy supply. There are two camps facing each other: those who are fully committed to electrification, especially for private use. And those who want to hold on to the existing infrastructure - i.e. the gas network - for as long as possible. If you think it's just about differences of opinion, you're wrong: there's a lot of money to be made or lost here.
On the one hand there is Robert Habeck, who set the goal of 500,000 installed heat pumps per year at the beginning of his term as Minister of Economics. According to the Federal Heat Pump Association, 356,000 devices were sold in 2023, compared to 236,000 heat pumps the year before. However, the debates over the heating law last year led to far fewer new heat pumps being ordered over the course of 2023. Manufacturers complained about significant declines, and some even had to register short-time work. They are worried because they had previously received a clear signal from politicians that they should increase their capacities - and made massive investments. And now demand is weakening.
On the other side is the gas lobby, which has invested billions in a network that will be used less in the next ten years. Municipal utilities in particular are worried about lost money - and are therefore insisting on other options for their network, such as hydrogen or biogases. However, experts agree that hydrogen is not an option for heating. Nevertheless, it is understandable that companies do not simply want to write off their investments here either.
The Oranienburg case should be a wake-up call: the energy transition requires joint action
The Oranienburg case should, however, shake people up. The energy transition will only succeed if everyone pulls together, and this serves as a good example of this. If politicians rely on heat pumps and electric cars, then municipalities must draw the right conclusions and upgrade their network in a timely manner.
Electricity customers can also make their own contribution to stabilizing the electricity grid. Nowadays, anyone who installs a PV system usually also installs a storage system. According to experts, this is extremely important: According to various reports, anyone who installs a solar system with storage can be between 60 and 80 percent self-sufficient. So: independent of network fluctuations. Of course, this also has a relieving effect on the entire electricity network if many electricity customers essentially supply themselves. Electric cars can also (theoretically at least) serve as large battery storage units that the house can tap into.
People don't have to worry about the power supply. In a study from 2022, the VDE found that the electricity supply in Germany is among the most reliable in the world. According to the study, Germany was even in second place in the world rankings, behind South Korea. The study examined how often and how long there was a blackout per year: an average of 12 minutes in 2021. Nevertheless, the association writes in the press release from April 2022 that the “effort to maintain network and system security” is due to the increase of renewable energies on the grid is increasing. However, this has no influence on the quality of care.