Principles

Our Vision

The energy transition will only succeed if actors from across society work to actively drive it forward.

We therefore need to build partnerships with a range of organisations and individuals, build reliable electricity infrastructure and solicit feedback from all our stakeholders, taking it into account when making decisions.

#100percentby2032

Europe is aiming to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. With this ambition in mind, policymakers are addressing energy, climate and industrial policy: companies which consume high amounts of energy need green electricity if they want to make their production processes climate-neutral. These companies will remain - and new ones will settle - where they can fully cover their energy demand with renewables, so decarbonising their processes. The faster a region achieves its objective of supplying its customers with electricity produced from mostly renewable energy sources, the more attractive it becomes as an industrial base. This was the reason behind 50Hertz launching its “100 percent by 2032: Affordable energy for a strong economy” initiative.

Our ambition

Tomorrow’s economy requires green energy for the decarbonisation of industrial processes and, on a wider scale, for climate-neutral economic activity. Power grids are the key: they securely transport renewable energy from producers to the consumers around the clock for 365 days a year.

Our initiative “100 percent by 2032” aims to ensure that 100% of the energy demand in our grid area will be covered by renewable energy (balanced over the year). We will support suppliers of renewable energy to quickly implement their projects and industry to decarbonise its processes. We will therefore contribute to fighting climate change in an effective way and strengthen the existence of sustainable industrial sites.

50Hertz is on the right track. The share of renewables in electricity consumption in the grid area rose to a high of 72% last year and the expansion of the grids is also making good progress. At the same time, however, there are increasing discussions about the costs of the energy transition and how energy can remain affordable.

Against this backdrop, 50Hertz is clearly emphasizing the affordability of energy in its strategy. After all, only if we succeed in making energy affordable in the future will there continue to be broad acceptance of the energy transition project among citizens and companies

Installed capacity in the 50Hertz grid area

SDG7, GRI 302-2

Energy consumption

In the 50Hertz grid area, electricity consumption in the year under review was around 103 TWh.

Reliability

GRI EU12

50Hertz is a pioneer in the integration of renewable energies and at the same time offers a high level of supply security.

The context of the energy transition

GRI Demand-Side-Management, Ensuring the availability and reliability of electricity

As a transmission system operator, we are at the heart of the energy transition. Four main trends play a significant role in this and define the future of our business model and the energy sector:

The decarbonisation of the energy sector

The decarbonisation of the energy sector remains the most important driver for change in Europe. This trend is being driven by political and social goals to fight climate change and is characterised by the rapid development of renewable energy sources at increasingly lower costs. We expect this trend to speed up, which will have a direct impact on the grid development that is required and the operation of the system. The availability of different types of renewable energy which are generated at different locations contributes to the sustainability, capacity and stability of the European power system as a whole. As increasing amounts of distributed renewable energy sources are integrated into our grids, more energy flows need to be transported over long distances and the interconnectors need to be built to link up European power systems. In other words, we need to be well equipped for the transmission of electricity over long distances and be able to manage fluctuations - particularly in terms of power generation - that may be extreme.

Decentralised generation and new players

The move towards more widely dispersed, small and local generation sources will continue. Increasing numbers of ‘prosumers’ (producers who are also consumers) will play a more active role in the energy system. New technologies, increased electrification and sector coupling entail the arrival of new players, for instance service providers who will work for end customers. This will render the operation of the system more complex: as a Group which owns two transmission system operators, we will need more flexibility to keep the system in balance.

Supranational coordination

Given the ever-growing share occupied by renewables in the energy mix and the trend towards decentralised production and a much larger number of players, the energy system is becoming more diverse and more complex. In addition, grid development is unable to keep pace with the fast development of renewable energy generation. In some European countries, this has given rise to congestion issues and considerable redispatching costs. As the electricity system and energy market in Europe become increasingly integrated, tackling these challenges is requiring a supranational approach. This takes place at a regional level, for instance through Regional Security Coordinators (RSCs such as TSCnet or Coreso), or at the level of the European Union, such as during the development of ENTSO-E’s Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP).

Digitalisation

The digitalisation of the energy sector is in full swing and will further accelerate decarbonisation and the increase in decentralised generation. In future, we expect to see enormous quantities of renewable energy being injected into the grid from many different sources; the increasing electrification of the mobility and heating sectors; closer international cooperation; and millions of people generating and storing their own electricity. A new approach to system control is therefore needed to exploit the advantages of the energy transition. This is being enabled by the digitalisation of the energy system, which means all electrical equipment and different players within the energy sector can be connected together. The emergence of new digital technologies will create new possibilities for optimising the collection, transfer, processing and representation of data and will also support automatic decision-making and the implementation of corrective measures as part of system control. Existing digital technologies comprise the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain.