Reports about new power lines through Thuringia and Bavaria are creating a bad mood between the neighboring federal states – and calling opponents of the route onto the scene. The Federal Network Agency is currently keeping a low profile. “The decision on the nationwide need for expansion in the transmission network will be made with the confirmation of the network development plan in a few weeks,” the authority in Bonn simply announced on Tuesday. It is not possible to comment on details in advance.
Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) surprisingly announced last week that, in addition to Suedlink and Suedostlink, the planned route called Suedwestlink would also bring electricity from northern Germany to Bavaria – if possible via underground cable. According to current plans, Suedwestlink should actually only continue through Lower Franconia to Baden-Württemberg, without a branch.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, another line (P540) is planned above ground from Schalkau (Sonneberg district) in Thuringia via the Münnerstadt area (Bad Kissingen district) to Grafenrheinfeld (Schweinfurt district).
Aiwanger rejected criticism of the plans from Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left). “The routes are not planned by the federal states, but by the transmission system operators and the Federal Network Agency,” said the Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister on Tuesday to the German Press Agency in Munich.
The Bavarian state government did not insist on including the line in the plans. Thuringia’s State Chancellery Minister Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (Left) then reiterated Thuringia’s criticism and demanded partnership from its neighbors in energy policy as well.
According to the Federal Network Agency, the line is necessary to maintain security of supply in the power grid and to reduce so-called redispatch costs, as the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Munich announced. Redispatch is the short-term change in the use of a power plant at the request of the transmission system operator in order to avoid network bottlenecks.
The plans for further new power lines had caused massive criticism not only from residents in the affected Bavarian regions, but also from the state government in Erfurt. “The fact that the Bavarian government is planning another power line at the expense of Thuringia and simply has a corridor on our territory is unparalleled audacity,” Ramelow said on Monday. The plan is shocking, also because the Bavarian government “didn’t even seek discussion with Thuringia.”
Regarding the creation of the new route plan, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs said: “The P540 was not proposed by the transmission system operators and is therefore not reflected in the current draft of the network development plan.” At the beginning of February, the Federal Network Agency subsequently determined the need for this AC line and informed Bavaria about it. “Why Thuringia knew nothing about the project is beyond our knowledge.”
Thuringia’s State Chancellery Minister Hoff wrote on . Greetings to Munich.”
Citizens’ initiatives consider further new power lines through Franconia and Thuringia to be oversized. There is no energy-related need for additional lines, said the Route Opponents Action Alliance and the Federal Association of Citizens’ Initiatives Against Suedlink as well as the Bergrheinfeld Citizens’ Initiative. It is also questionable how the high number of new power line plans should actually be implemented.
However, the managing director of the Federal Wind Energy Association BWE, Wolfram Axthelm, said: “Especially the consumption-intensive federal states in the south, especially Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, do not have sufficient renewable energy capacity to cover their high demand themselves.” They are dependent on being able to obtain cheap electricity from the eastern and northern federal states.
