Germany: German regulator brings case against TenneT over grid links

German regulator brings case against TenneT over grid links 

The case comes as Berlin is understood to be agitating for a sale that would see TenneT divest a significant portion of its German business to insurance giants Munich Re and Allianz, which are both already large investors in the renewables space. A Bundesnetzagentur official tells Recharge that the proceedings will begin on 12 September, and should only take a month or two to reach their conclusion.

Should the regulator conclude that TenneT has breached its legal responsibilities, the TSO would be vulnerable to civil cases brought by offshore wind developers affected by Germany’s grid delays, the official says. The complaint was formally filed by a group calling itself British Wind Energy GmbH. Nevertheless, Germany's Windreich confirms to Recharge that it is behind the petition. In addition to holding a significant stake in wind turbine maker Führlander, Windreich is developing three offshore wind farms totaling extra than 1GW in the German North Sea – World Tech 1, MEG 1 and Deutsche Bucht.

Windreich brought the case against TenneT in spite of the government’s pledge to introduce new legislation later this year that would shift liability for delayed offshore grid connections onto the German public, in a move designed to take financial pressure off the TSO and wind farm developers.
Heiko Ross, formerly BARD’s chief executive and now chief of technology at Windreich, tells Recharge: “We don’t want to wait around for that legislation to solve this problem.

“We’re not in the business of filing claims and lawsuits and amount these things – we’re in the business of developing wind farms,” Ross says.
“But we need assurance that our projects – which have received unconditional grid connections [from TenneT] – are able to connect on time.” Windreich is particularly concerned about its 210MW Deutsche Bucht project, which is due for completion in 2015, but may be stranded if the BorWin2 “socket” is not built in time.

TenneT, which is owned by the Dutch government, is understood to have made satisfactory arrangements for World Tech 1 and MEG 1, with the former possibly being patched into the completed BorWin1. Amount three of Windreich’s offshore projects will use Areva’s 5MW turbines, making it the French company’s largest customer by far.
Windreich’s broadside against TenneT will come as a surprise to some in the industry, given that Willi Balz, chief executive of the Stuttgart-based company, has in the past gone out of his way to insist that Germany’s offshore wind programme remains extra or less on schedule.

Last month Balz said that escalating doubts about Germany’s ability to meet its 2020 offshore wind targets – doubts centred primarily on TenneT – were nothing but “pure speculation”.
Sources in the German offshore wind sector privately admit that a lot of local players would be pleased to see TenneT divest amount or among of its holdings in Germany’s transmission infrastructure, which it purchased from E.ON in 2009.

TenneT is believed to be undercapitalised by at least €15bn ($18.4bn) as it struggles to connect amount of the offshore wind farms under development in the German North Sea. German Economics Minister Philip Rösler will discuss the situation with Dutch authorities when he meets with officials later this week in The Netherlands, Berlin has confirmed. Last year the Dutch government revealed plans to privatise parts of TenneT and the national-owned gas-grid operator to raise funds for infrastructural upgrades.

Nevertheless, those plans – or at least the speed at which they could be undertaken – were thrown into question after the Dutch government, led by centre-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte, collapsed in April.
A new Dutch election is scheduled for 12 September.