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Tapping the load reduction potential of industry for system services

Source: Energie & Management Powernews , 06 January 2023

The four German transmission system operators have developed a mechanism to tap the load reduction potential of industry for system services.

With immediate effect, industrial companies have the option of voluntarily making their load reduction potential available for grid stabilization. This emerges from a communication of the German transmission system operators 50 Hertz, Amprion, Tennet and Transnet BW.

The four companies have developed and agreed over the past months together with representatives of industry, politics and the Federal Network Agency a corresponding process. This can now be prepared, it says further in the communication. Previously, the network operators had recommended in the context of an analysis for the Federal Ministry of Economics to make load reduction potentials of the industry usable for system stabilization in the context of a preliminary stage to the shutdown cascade.

Large consumers can report voluntary load reduction potentials in order to avoid or at least minimize possible controlled load shutdowns in critical network situations. For this purpose, the transmission system operators have put a reporting form on the Internet in which industrial companies can indicate which consumptions they can reduce and how much lead time they specifically need to do so.

Lead time up to 72 hours

The lead time of the preliminary stage can be up to 72 hours and is thus significantly longer than that of short-term load reduction measures, such as the shutdown cascade. These are instructed at very short notice if necessary, as the transmission system operators explain. A minimum lead time of 12 minutes is prescribed here. A planned production adjustment is industrial large consumers in this framework no longer possible.

"By the longer lead time provided in the preliminary stage with the prepared, targeted load reduction, on the other hand, both technical and financial risks can be minimized and a better planability for the industrial large consumers made possible," writes the transmission system operator Amprion on its website. The goal is "the most efficient and damage-limiting procedure possible," which is ensured by early coordination of all parties involved, it said. "The instruction of the preliminary stage is carried out in accordance with § 13 para. 2 EnWG or EnSiG without contract and without remuneration," it continues.

According to Amprion, industrial large-scale consumers have partly already provided master data to the transmission system operators and indicated load reduction potentials. These are required in the form of movement data, specifically as time series with quarter-hourly values.

Author: Fritz Wilhelm