A second stress test is to be carried out to check the security of the power supply for the winter. The Federal Ministry of Economics has given this order to the four German transmission system operators.
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The ministry announced on Sunday in Berlin that the task was to determine whether the security of supply in the electricity sector and the secure operation of the grid were guaranteed under stricter assumptions. Results can be expected “in the next few weeks”.
A first stress test from March to May of this year came to the conclusion that the security of supply is guaranteed for the coming winter – even if Russian gas supplies fail, the gas price is very high and if a large number of French nuclear power plants are not connected to the grid.
Now even tighter scenarios are to be calculated. “These include, for example, even higher price assumptions than in the first stress test, an even more serious failure of gas supplies and a greater failure of French nuclear power plants,” the ministry said. In addition, the special situation in southern Germany should be taken into account. There are gas-fired power plants in Bavaria, but few coal-fired power plants and few wind turbines, the last nuclear power plants would be shut down at the end of 2022, it said.
