Berlin
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the federal government wants to significantly accelerate the expansion of electricity networks. To this end, the construction of several lines must be brought forward, as the ministry announced in response to a DPA request. Firstly, the “Augsburger Allgemeine” reported on the planned amendment of the so-called Federal Requirements Plan Act, which will come into effect next Friday. Bundestag must be adopted.
Electricity should reach the south and west faster
FDP energy politician Lukas Köhler told dpa. The change concerns two routes that are to be built faster: the so-called Northeast connection, which transports electricity from Schleswig-Holstein to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Rhine-Main connection. The Rhine-Main connection will help to ensure that electricity is transported better from Lower Saxony to the south in the future.
“Only through a rapid expansion of the electricity grid can we achieve a secure power supply at affordable prices,” stressed Köhler, deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group. It is “absolutely right” to build these two new routes as quickly as possible.
There is also support from the Greens. “We will all benefit enormously from the expansion of the network,” Ingrid Nestle, spokeswoman for the parliamentary group for energy and climate protection, told dpa. The new major lines will mainly be used to direct cheap offshore wind energy to the south of Germany and “to the industrial centers”. “In this way we reduce the costs resulting from the use of expensive fossil power plants.”
The law should be the ‘starting signal for the beginning of construction’.
The coalition’s corresponding bill states: “Given the current regional imbalance in energy production and use, it is necessary to transmit electricity over long distances.” By bringing forward the projects, “bottlenecks in the power supply within the German network” should be eliminated.
Exactly when construction of the routes can start depends on the plans of the Federal Network Agency and the transmission system operators. Once the law is passed, this will be the “start signal for construction to begin,” emphasized Köhler, vice-chairman of the FDP faction.
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