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Next exit: System Stability
On 6 December 2023, the Federal Government adopted the System Stability Roadmap, which was drawn up together with the relevant sectors. It is a central component for the restructuring of the electricity system. It has set out the tasks to be completed in the relevant processes, along with a timeline for this work. The what-who-when principle applies to all 51 processes and 18 milestones in the roadmap.
In September, stakeholders from government and the energy sector met in Berlin at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s second Roadmap for System Stability conference to take stock. What has been achieved, and how happy are the stakeholders with the work done so far? What needs to be improved, and do we need to respond to new developments and challenges?
Roadmap: updates mainly relate to resilience
The participants were very happy with the way the cooperation was progressing, but still saw a need for adjustments – particularly regarding resilience. Four of the 18 milestones up to 2035 have already been completed. 26 of 51 roadmap processes are well on track. The completed milestones include the auctions for reactive power (since 2025) and the market-based procurement of inertial reserve. Also, a System Stability Report has already been produced to identify the need for system services.
It is now important to update the roadmap to take better account of the interplay of grid operation and market processes, and to orient the roadmap even more clearly to enhanced resilience in the electricity system. Frank Wetzel, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, commented that the recent attacks on the electricity grid in various parts of Germany showed that, whilst the general supply was never jeopardised at any point, the system is vulnerable. He said that weak points need to be identified, that electricity systems need to be made resilient, and that the electricity supply needs to be restored as quickly as possible in the event of an attack.
Research project for faster roll-out of grid-forming inverters
Various aspects of the roadmap processes were discussed at the conference. Much attention was paid to the presentation of the research project “Boost-GFM”, which is to focus on the expedited roll-out of grid-forming inverters over the next three years, thus supporting the implementation of the System Stability Roadmap. Grid-forming inverters help to keep the grids stable at all times. For example, they provide inertial reserve to immediately offset imbalances between electricity generation and consumption.
The core element of the research project is a central, open data platform which pools data from a number of sources (e.g. field tests) using standardised formats and interfaces, and thus facilitates a scientific analysis of the real system behaviour of grid-forming installations and its relevance for system stability. This makes it possible to detect potential negative effects on system stability at an early stage.
Over a period of nearly three years, we have seen that the fulfilment of the milestones and processes in the System Stability Roadmap is primarily made possible through the constructive and proactive involvement of many different stakeholders in the sector. These include transmission and distribution system operators, equipment manufacturers, business associations, standardisation bodies and representatives of academia. The implementation of the System Stability Roadmap is actively supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), and is accompanied by monitoring.