The New Planning Regime for the Expansion of the German Onshore Electricity Grid – a Role Model for Europe?

Since Summer 2011, a new planning regime governs the expansion of the German onshore electricity grid. Its aim is to accelerate the installation and operation of electricity transmission cables in order to bring the nationally proclaimed “energy transition” forward. To this end, a complex new four-tiered planning regime has been adopted, which endows extensive responsibility for planning and implementing the development of the national electricity grid to a federal authority. To some extent, with this new regime, the German legislator implemented ahead of time a number of planning law requirements which are binding for all EU Member States on the basis of the newly adopted EU-Regulation No. 347/2013. Hence, Germany’s new planning regime for the expansion of its electricity grid could potentially provide a role model for transposing the new EU regulation, and, as such, possibly be of interest to other EU Member States’ legislators. This article presents an overview of the new German onshore planning regime along with an initial evaluation and outlines the new EU Regulation No. 347/2013, followed by a discussion as to whether the German regime could be a role model for other EU Member States currently deciding how to achieve the desired acceleration effects.

With the amendment and adoption of the EnWG and NABEG, a new planning regime was introduced in Germany in an attempt to accelerate the expansion of the German transmission electricity grid and, thus, step-up and foster the national energy transition, striving for a national power supply increasingly driven by renewable energy in the medium and long-term. To this end, a complex regulation scheme was established, introducing three new planning instruments, the responsibility for which lies with the BNetzA as a federal authority: the federal network development planning, the federal requirements planning and the federal sector planning. Both the manageability and effectiveness of the new planning regime remain to be seen. Taking into account the new concentration of extensive planning competences at the BNetzA and the involved synergy effects, the new scheme appears promising in terms of its potential to accelerate the realisation of the energy grid expansion. However, the complexity of the different, but interrelated administrative decision-making levels and the deferral of concerned third parties’ right to challenge their substantive and procedural integrity to the fourth and last stage, namely the planning approval stage, cast doubt as to the scheme’s effectiveness in light of the risk of over-burdening available review procedures and undermining any acceleration effects. Also, one might question whether the extensive rules on public participation during each stage of the decision-making actually promote expedited project authorisation, or, to the contrary, are more likely to result in more or less repetitive consideration of the same issues at each level. On the other hand, the new regime does, to a certain extent, already implement structural legal planning and authorisation requirements of recent EU legislation. In this regard, Germany may have taken innovative steps for the transposition of Regulation No. 347/2013, which could potentially serve as an example for other EU Member States, especially considering Germany’s role as a crucial transit-state for the trans-European power supply.



Copyright: © Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Quelle: Issue 01/2013 (April 2013)
Seiten: 19
Preis inkl. MwSt.: € 41,65
Autor: Dr. Markus Appel
Anna Burghardt

Artikel weiterleiten In den Warenkorb legen Artikel kommentieren


Diese Fachartikel könnten Sie auch interessieren:

The Energiewende in Germany: Background, Developments and Future Challenges
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (4/2013)
This article explores the background to the Energiewende in Germany and recent developments. Specifically, it examines the ongoing politics of this commitment to phase-out nuclear power, reduce fossil fuel use and ensure continued economic growth. Distinctions between the German Energiewende and energy transitions in other countries are drawn, the actions undertaken and the forms of governance and politics shaping them outlined. While Germany is a leader in renewable energy, and the broad societal consensus against nuclear power is uniquely German, political and societal conflicts of a more general nature are emerging. Other countries follow closely developments occuring in Germany and may learn from the German experience. The key objective of this article is thus to draw attention to the politics of the Energiewende in Germany and the key debates and difficult decisions emerging.

Efficiency and Public Acceptance of European Grid Expansion Projects: Lessons Learned across Europe
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (4/2013)
The adoption of the European Union’s target to increase the share of energy from renewable sources to 20 % requires a substantial modernisation and rebuilding of the electricity grid. Current grid projects are often delayed for a variety of reasons, such as the inefficiency of permitting procedures or local opposition. In fall 2011, the European Commission proposed a regulation which aims at enhancing the necessary grid expansion. The legislation was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in April and came into force on 15 May 2013. Among other considerations, the legislation aims at tackling the aforementioned challenges by making permitting procedures more efficient and implementing measures to increase the acceptance of new power-lines. However, questions remain about the quality and quantity of the proposed provisions designed to overcome all details of the identified problems. It will depend on the implementation of this legislation both on the European and on local level whether the new provisions will prove to be successful in terms of increased procedure efficiency and decreased public opposition. EU institutions, national governments, and competent public authorities should be aware of the area of conflict between improved procedure efficiency and increased public acceptance.

Bedeutung lokaler Energiekonzepte im Energiekonzept des SRU
© ia GmbH - Wissensmanagement und Ingenieurleistungen (5/2011)
Effizienzsteigerung führt nicht automatisch zu weniger Verbrauch

Einheitliche Normen schaffen mehr Planungssicherheit
© DIV Deutscher Industrieverlag GmbH / Vulkan-Verlag GmbH (4/2011)
Über 120 unterschiedliche Standards im Bereich Smart Metering sind im Laufe der Zeit in Europa entstanden.

Ausbau der Erneuerbaren Energien und der Netze in Niedersachsen
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (2/2011)
Aus Sicht der niedersächsischen Landesregierung besteht die primäre Herausforderung der Energie- und Klimaschutzpolitik darin, eine nachhaltige Energieversorgung zu gewährleisten.

Name:

Passwort:

 Angemeldet bleiben

Passwort vergessen?

Der ASK Wissenspool
 
Mit Klick auf die jüngste Ausgabe des Content -Partners zeigt sich das gesamte Angebot des Partners
 

Selbst Partner werden?
 
Dann interessiert Sie sicher das ASK win - win Prinzip:
 
ASK stellt kostenlos die Abwicklungs- und Marketingplattform - die Partner stellen den Content.
 
Umsätze werden im Verhältnis 30 zu 70 (70% für den Content Partner) geteilt.
 

Neu in ASK? Dann gleich registrieren und Vorteile nutzen...