Energy sector of Germany & USA

Power grids of Germany

• Germany power grid ranks the most reliable in the world even with an increase
share of fluctuating of renewable energy sources.
• Germany has come forward with a technique of dividing its large power stations
into thousands of small power stations using renewable energy sources such as
Biomass plant , Solar PV and Wind.
• In the recent year Germany has installed over 1.7 million solar panels and 29
thousand wind turbines.
• This causes an increase in supply of the electrical energy.
• Stability of grid becomes a challenging task for the grid’s operators in terms of high
influx and organizing the interaction between transmission and distribution grids.
 • It is clear from the graph that how
Germany is continuously expanding
its grid , this plan will help Germany
in future as well as in the present to
ensure most reliable and effective
electrical energy , it could lead them
to supply more and more of its
electrical energy to the other deficit
countries.

Fig 1.1 (1)

Generation
• Germany produced 484 TW.h of energy which includes 50%
from the renewable energy sources, 24 % from coal and 12 %
from natural gas .
• The generation capacity of Germany increased drastically from
121 GW to 219 GW from the year 2000 to 2019.
This table clearly shows that renewable energy covers the most of the production of
electrical energy in Germany especially wind energy.

Fig 1.2
Transmission
• The transmission grid length comprises of 35,000 KM with a
maximum voltage of 220(KV) or 380(KV).
• The transmission grid is owned by 4 Transmission
Operators(TSO) which are responsible for operation ,
maintenance and development of the grid named as :
1) TenneT
2) 50 Hertz
3) Amprion
4) TransnetBW

(2)
Distribution
• The distribution grid is responsible in bringing power directly to
the consumers
• Germany distribution grid comprises of 1679000KM and is
operated by a large numbers of distribution operators (DSO)
approximately 880.
StakeHolders
There are different stakeholders in Germany’s grid which are given
below :
• The German federal government
• Federal legislative (Bundestag & Bundesrat)
• The federal states
• Local governments
• Federal agencies and government advisory bodies
• European Union
• Political parties
• The energy industry
• The renewables industry
• Other industry
• Trade unions (3)
 Power grids of USA

• The US grid is divided into three major grids which operates independently. The names of
which are given below :
1. Eastern Grid (comprises largest area of the country)
2. Western Grid (comprises the west area of rocky mountain)
3. ERCOT Grid (comprises most of the territory of Texas )
• The US power grid is made up of 73000 Power Plants, 257500 KM high voltage power lines
and millions of KM of lower voltage power lines and distributing transformers having a
total of 145 million customers
Generation
• Electricity in the United States is generated using a variety of
resources and technologies. Most electricity is produced using
conventional sources such as natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear.
• The total generation capacity comprises of 4.12 trillion Kwh.
The table clearly states the mode of production of electrical energy in USA , and it shows that
it majorly comprises of the Natural gas (40%), Renewable energy (20%) and Nuclear energy
(20%).

Fig 2.1
Transmission
• The electric power transmission grid of the United States
consists of 120,000 miles (190,000 km) of lines operated by
500 companies.
• There are currently 4 RTOs within North America :
1. PJM—PJM Interconnection
2. MISO—Midcontinent Independent System Operator
3. SPP—Southwest Power Pool
4. ISONE—ISO New England.
• There are also 4 independent system operators (ISO) in USA
power grid .

(4)
 Analysis
Actual installed capacity from 2016 to 2021

Fig 3.1 Fig 3.2

Continue…
• As it can be seen from the graphs that both the countries are moving
from non-renewable energy sources towards the renewable energy
sources in their electrical power generation, coal and natural gas are
going to be vanished soon as in Germany one of the scientist found that
Germany would be out of natural gas by 2033, coal-fire generation will
be ended by 2038 as they have the target of gaining 60% energy from
renewable till 2050 ,similarly USA is also looking to bring in new solar
and wind generation projects to get rid of these conventional energy
production techniques.
• In future , the focus of both the countries would be to make most of the
energy using solar and wind energy and if we talk about the most
preferred among these so it will be difficult to know as the graphs tell
that both the countries are working on these two techniques in a equal
manner
• As these countries are moving towards the renewable energy resources they
need to face some of the problems which are stated below :
1. Renewable energy is intermittent i-e the energy can not be produced 24 hours
a day , some day there could be no wind or no sunlight then there would be
reduction in the production .
2. Renewable energy has geographical limitations i-e you can’t plant the solar and
wind generating plants and there is a specific area concerned for these power
plants
3. Their installation cost is much larger
• These are the reason that both these countries can not completely shutdown
their fossil fuel production , they need them for their survival .
 Energy Storage Systems
There are three main energy storage systems in Germany
1. Batteries (Lithium Ion, Lead Acid and others)
2. Pumped-Storage Hydroelectricity (PSH)
3. Thermal Energy Storage (TES)
4. Other types
The applications served by these systems are given as follow
• Residential
• Commercial
• Industrial
 Shore to Ship Power Systems

Shore-to-ship power helps to reduce polluting emissions, noise and

vibration in ports by connecting vessels to the port electricity grid and
allowing them to shut down the onboard power generation units while
at berth.
There are two main types of such power systems
1. High capacity :
• It typically serves large cruise ,containers and refrigerated vessels
• The voltage is greater than 6.6 kilovolt (kv)
2. Low capacity :
• It typically serves smaller vessels such as fishing fleets and tugs
• Operates at low voltage of 220-440 volts.
Countries leading in development of shore
power systems

The top 5 European countries which are

leading in development of shore power
systems are as follow :
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Germany
4. France
5. Italy

Fig 4.1
References
• (1)
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germanys-grid-expans
ion-going-slower-planned
• (2)
https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Dossier/grids-grid-expan
sion.html
• (3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid
• (4) https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor