Flagship ARD public television here broadcast a report on the state of the German power grid, which until about some 15 years ago was by far among the world’s most stable. But those days are now gone, thanks to volatile green energies.
The ARD report basically tells German citizens and industry that they need to prepare quickly for blackouts because the country’s power grid is as unstable as never before.
Just last week the power went out due to a winter North Sea storm which swept across a large part of Germany: 300,000 people lost power.
Outages leading to millions in losses
And power outages have grown common even on calm weather days. Last year on November 16, the ARD reports, the entire city of Wiesbaden saw its power go out for 25 minutes, an event that city utility operator Frank Rolle cannot recall ever happening in 45 years of operation. “Suddenly 219,000 Wiesbaden residents had no more power.”
Many among us might be tempted to think: what’s so tough about getting on without power for 25 minutes. Perishables in the freezer or fridge after all won’t be harmed. What’s the big deal?
But as the ARD reports, such a power outage is in fact an extremely expensive affair for industry and business. For example company manager Hajo Hagens of a plastic film producer said that power outage cost his company close to a half million euros and that it took an entire day to get the production up and and running again and tuned the way it’s supposed to be.
Glass producer Schott also saw damages run into “millions of euros” reports the ARD.
Back-up systems too expensive
As Germany’s power supply becomes increasingly volatile, many companies are finding out that back-up systems are just too expensive. According to Industrial Park manager Peter Bartholomäus:
It would be so cost-intensive and especially with energy intensive industries like the chemical industry, the ability to compete is also impacted by the cost of energy – especially by the cost of energy, I’d like to say. That’s why we simply cannot build double or the triple back-up supply. No one can pay it.”
Grid “extremely under stress”
The ARD concedes that the German power grid is becoming “ever more vulnerable”. According to power grid operator Tennet, the grid “is extremely under stress”. The culprit: “The Energiewende” (transition to green energies).
Amprion, Germany’s second largest grid operator, wrote to ARD:
In order to keep the grid stable, we have to intervene more and more often.”
473 outages daily
Hans-Peter Erbring Gridlab GmbH tells the ARD that the German and European power grid “is at its limits, and daily”. ARD adds that every day in Germany, the power goes out somewhere 473 times a day.
The ARD then describes the great northern Germany blackout of November 2005 (one that I recall) where in some places the power was out for days due to a freak winter snow squall.
Officials: learn to live with it!
Germany’s precarious power supply has since come to the attention of the top levels of the German government. Christopher Unger of the Frederal Catastrophe Protection Office tells ARD that Germany is “poorly prepared for a blackout” and that the people in general need to wake up to the reality of potential blackouts which Germany is not accustomed to seeing.
One might think that with Germany’y precarious power situation, leading officials would be moving to solve the problem of unstable power and to find solutions to make it stable. Unfortunately this is not the case, as they seem perfectly content with all the grid unpredictability. It’s the accepted price of green energy.
Ralf Ackermann of the Fire Department Association in the state of Hesse says people need to be aware that the local store may not be open, and that it’s good idea to have a flashlight on hand. The ARD summarizes:
It’s high time to prepare yourself for the case of a power outage”
In other words, Germany’s days of a stable power grid are over, and don’t expect then to return.
Of course ARD studios and and government facilities will have all the back-up they need to weather blackouts. As for the rest of of the citizens they will have to fend for themselves.
Meanwile in Austria experts are warning also that the country’s power grid is more prone to blackouts than ever. Die Presse writes:
The risk of a power grid overload is rising, warns grid operator APG. The costs for securing the power supply rose to 300 million euros. For the future all ‘gas power plants” are needed as well as new power lines.”
It’s what the greens want.
To drive the West back to the preindustrial age.
This will have, in the anti-human greens’ eyes, the beneficial effect of reducing the population by a factor of about 2.
What could be more desirable, Seb@stian?
Beg to disagree. Power outages seem to increase fertility and fill hospitals 9 month later.
If less people is what the Greens want, then it will backfire.
If you think so it must be true. Quick, shut down all machines including your PC where you write these illusive comments from 😉
Don’t worry, the population will continue to grow for quite some time. Don’t get too excited about it.
You getting a sense of reality and not calling for me in every comment you post? You know, if you do it 3 times a row in front of a mirror, bad things will happen.
“me in every comment you post”
When you want a clown act, its easy just to order one.
And here you are.
Empty slap-stick type clown at every post.
At our beck and call. 🙂
This has been obvious for years. When will policy makers and the public catch on?
Wind and solar generation are totally unsuited for grid supply.
Back to the coalface.
I’m waiting for the umbilical chord from Victoria to South Australia to fail.
Hot day in Adelaide (40ºC+), Melbourne, Brisbane a bit warm too(32ºC), but the east coast of NSW looks like being below 30ºC, so the stress on the supply probably won’t be too bad.
Fix your grid or kiss your basic industries goodbye. You’ve made a good case for unreliable power being a bigger problem than expensive power for industry. Power is more stable and raw materials are cheaper in the US. I’m sure the factory workers will find jobs in retail when the manufacturing jobs go offshore. Your planting the seeds of a blue collar rebellion like the one that got Trump elected.
What they don’t realise, is that when the lights go out people look for other things to do. Especially if the power is off for an extended period. Expect a RISE in the birth rate…
Where’s ‘sod’ to explain all this to me?
He assured me that this could never happen in Germany, and that I didn’t understand how the system worked.
Another cAGW advocate defeated by the actuality.
For the past two winters we’ve seen increased deaths in Britain due to higher costs for heating. I suppose this will occur globally as winters get cooler. But has anyone considered whether the chemtrail phenomenon will cause the cooling to be more severe, or happen faster?
The constant semi-overcast blocks some percentage of ultraviolet and of insolation. Mt Pinatubo’s eruption in 1992 caused a global temperature drop of one-half of one degree celsius. Surely chemtrails must have an effect on temperature too.
For those who don’t know about chemtrails: Watch for a morning after a rainstorm or strong wind when the sky reverts to its normal high-domed beautiful deep blue. Watch for the return of the so-called “contrails.” Watch, checking the sky every 10 minutes while these chemtrails spread over the entire sky, returning it to the low-domed pale overcast that has become our usual.
Yeah right …
…
No, they only affect your brainwaves.
And it’s working …
@other skeptics: and you wonder why you are put in to the conspiracy theory corner? 😉
You will notice that nobody bothered responding except you, seb.
+10000
SebastianH literally believes that 30,000 species are going extinct every year, that the Earth’s deserts are expanding, that the oceans are turning to acid too quickly, that crop quality is deteriorating…because of human CO2 emissions. And yet here he is, talking about “sanity”, “brainwaves” and claiming that those skeptical of his beliefs are in the “conspiracy theory” corner.
He probably has no idea that the National Academy of Sciences (1975) suggested that chem trails could have a “significant” effect on climate…in addition to suggesting that there was a “finite possibility” the Earth was entering the next ice age within the next century.
In the chatbot’s upside down world, we are all the trolls, and he’s the heroic defender of science.
It’s “…you wonder why you are put in to the conspiracy theory corner?” subroutine is called waaaay too often, and never when applicable.
I wonder if he’s referring to the the fool who tried to link climate skeptics to moon landing conspiracy believers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/jul/08/climate-denial-linked-to-conspiratorial-thinking-in-new-study
Well, chatbot, here are some of those skeptics he said believe we faked the moon landing.
http://www.populartechnology.net/2010/06/nasa-astronauts-skeptical-of-man-made.html?m=1
GOLLY! Maybe we did?! //s//
Seriously, SebH, get a life.
Yonason,
the easy answer is that they did indeed land on the moon but forgot to bring a working camera. They then faked the video and voila, the conspiracy starts off in a tangent!
Penelope. The experiment was done some years back. https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-after-911-set-the-stage-for-an-unlikely-climate-change-experiment/
Short answer – colder days but warmer nights.
Chemtrails have long been an obsession with the conspiracy theorists. Best ignored.
Are you sure the German grid isn’t being hacked by the Russians…
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/910124/Russia-attack-UK-Gavin-Williamson-Defence-Secretary-infrastructure-power-plant-energy-hack
Or perhaps Merkel never read the 2005 Eon-Netz report on wind power:
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/eon-netz-wind-report-2005/
“As wind power capacity rises, the lower availability of the wind farms determines the reliability of the system as a whole to an ever increasing extent. Consequently the greater reliability of traditional power stations becomes increasingly eclipsed.
As a result, the relative contribution of wind power to the guaranteed capacity of our supply system up to the year 2020 will fall continuously to around 4%.
In concrete terms, this means that in 2020, with a forecast wind power capacity of over 48,000MW (Source: dena grid study), 2,000MW of traditional power production can be replaced by these wind farms.”
When will the companies which have lost a lot of money due to outages, demand recompense from the power producers and grid operators?
A smart politician needs to work off this new reality: “you want UNSTABLE power supply, lowered productivity as a result, higher and higher power bills, growing energy poverty, and national instability spiralling into third world status? OR do you want STABILITY, improved productivity and international competitiveness, cheaper energy, and lowered costs overall and improved standard of living?”
I tell you that people will forsake the former in favour of the latter every time. Of course the sell job also needs strong science, which is available in abundance, to back this up against the ideological mantra of the greens. But it can be done if coordinated rightly.
So you are suggesting that we build out storage and improve the grid so it can cope with a lot more renewables? That’s what the sane people want.
Yeah, like storage is capable of so much…. NOT
The more UNRELIABLES, the bigger the risk of collapse.
And how would you ever know what sane people would want or do. Sanity is an anathema to you, seb.
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Face it, Germans aren’t very bright. Back in the day they followed a savior who promised them the world and all it brought was misery. Fast forwards and Germans are worshipping another false god and it’s bringing them grief.
I can’t wait to watch Germany go dark again.