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Agora energy transition

A treasure trove of data on electricity demand and supply

Author: Prof. Dr. Jochen Fricke, Cluster Energietechnik (As of: April 2018) Whoever wanted to know how much electrical power we need in Germany, from which power plants the electricity comes, how much electricity is exported and imported, and what electricity costs on the stock exchange, can get the desired information at www.agora-energiewende.de time-resolved and graphically processed. How this Internet offer works, we want to explain in the following and thus also express our appreciation for this important service. Let's look in Figure 1 the power generation by the various German power plants and the electricity consumption in Germany - randomly selected -  between March 17 and 27, 2018. To read off is that hydroelectric power plants in the period shown with only about 1.6 (right) - 2.6 (left) GW were on the grid. Biomass power plants provided about 5.5 GW of electrical power at a constant time. Onshore wind power plants supported the grid - strongly fluctuating - with a minimum of 0.5 GW and a maximum of 34 GW,  offshore wind power plants with a maximum of 4.5 GW. Photovoltaic (PV) power plants provided a maximum of 25 GW at midday, and of course 0 GW at night. Consumption varied between about 41 and 79 GW. Conventional power plants provided about 42 to 52 GW.

Agora Energiewende Fig. 1
Figure 1: Electricity demand and supplied electrical power from renewable power plants; the data shown here can be accessed interactively on the Agora pages (photo credit: Agora-Energiewende).

We can also learn from the graphic that supplying Germany with electricity from renewable sources alone is still an illusion, especially since the output of wind and solar power plants fluctuates extremely. If we look at Figure 2, we can see that the total capacity of renewable power plants in the selected period fluctuates between 8.5 and 53 GW, and that of conventional power plants between 42 and 52 GW. The power supply exceeded the demand by a maximum of 16 GW. Electricity spot prices fluctuated strongly. On March 18, with 53 GW of renewable capacity, the price was about minus 3 cents/kWh. There was more power supply than power demand that day, and buyers were getting paid 3 cents/kWh. On March 19-20, renewable output dropped to only 15 GW and the price of electricity rose to 10 cents/kWh. Otherwise, the price hovered around 5 cents/kWh.

Agora Energiewende Fig. 2
Figure 2: Left scale shows: Demand for electrical power (red curve), power contributions from renewables (green) and conventional power plants (blue); the right-hand scale shows electricity prices (image: Agora-Energiewende).

The problem of the power surplus was solved by electricity export, with a maximum of 16 GW (Figure 3). Austria took a maximum of 7 GW from us, France 5 GW and the Netherlands 3 GW. Electricity was imported with a maximum of 5 GW of capacity, mainly from Denmark and the Czech Republic with a maximum of 2 GW each. Calculated over 2017, about 97 TWh were exported and about 37 TWh imported, so the export balance is about 60 TWh. This corresponds to about 10% of our electricity generation of 654 TWh last year.

Agora Energiewende Fig. 3
Figure 3. Our electricity exports (bars up) far outweigh our electricity imports (bars down); power exchanged with our neighbors is indicated by colored bars; the solid curve shows the balance (image credit: Agora-Energiewende).

Who now provides this data? Agora Energiewende consists of a team of about 30 people, was founded in 2012 and is a joint initiative of Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation. Stiftung Mercator is a private foundation with, among other things, climate protection as a socio-political goal. Dr. Patrick Graichen is the director of the Agora. Agora's work focuses on the electricity sector. Climate protection, expansion strategies, efficiency, security of supply and load management play a central role. In ancient Greece, the agora was the central meeting place of a city, where findings and development of the community were discussed and negotiated. Agora Energiewende wants to be such a place with regard to the energy issues of today and tomorrow in our country as well. It should also be mentioned that the former director of Agora Energiewende, Rainer Baake, served as State Secretary for Energy in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2014 to 2018.