Hamburg Power Grid Faces Severe Capacity Shortages for Major Industrial Clients
Hamburg wants to become climate-neutral and electrify its industry. For one of Germany’s largest industrial locations, however, something decisive is missing: sufficient power capacity.
Data centers and their cooling systems, industrial companies on the way to climate-neutral production, and large battery storage facilities all need electricity, a lot of electricity. Yet, in Hamburg, capacities for new connections are becoming scarce—for high-voltage electricity for industrial customers. This constraint persists even though the city has laid 2,000 kilometers of new cables and remains surrounded by northern Germany’s wind parks.
The Missing Infrastructure: Why Transformers Are Holding Back the Energy Transition
What is missing are transformers. They ensure that the electricity that arrives at the Hamburg city border in high voltage is stepped down for the Hamburg distribution grid.
Transmission system operator 50 Hertz plans to spend 800 million euros by 2035 for additional capacity. However, politics and the economy feel it is not fast enough: "This occurs currently not at the speed that we need. We need these transformers, and that in a timely manner. This is a topic that currently lies with 50 Hertz," stated Dr. Peter Wolffram, Hamburger Energienetze.
50 Hertz says: "New substations (…) require suitable land, require extensive approval and coordination processes and must be integrated into the existing grid during ongoing operation. Precisely these factors often determine the time requirement of projects more strongly than the actual construction of transformers."
Allocation Procedures and Rising National Pressures
The problem is the subject of a joint cabinet meeting between Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein: some need electricity, others supply it—if only there were enough transformers for it. This is becoming a risk for the energy transition and climate protection in Hamburg, according to Peter Tschentscher (SPD), First Mayor of Hamburg. The Senate has had to listen to a lot of criticism because of the many construction sites for energy lines. "But we have always said: We have to do this to drive the energy transition forward. And now the transmission network operators come and say: We are not finished. We specifically lack 16 transformers. It is jamming because not enough preliminary work was done," said Tschentscher. And he emphasizes: "This is a topic throughout all of Germany."
In fact, metropolitan areas like Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, or Stuttgart increasingly have the problem that there is a lack of connection capacities. They have already had to carry out so-called allocation procedures. Existing connections as well as smaller new connections are not affected by this. But major customers who will need more electricity in the future must then announce what connection capacity they need. Only in the allocation procedure will they then be told what connection capacity they actually get, and often also: at what time.
Political Friction and the Path Forward
Hamburg will have to call for this allocation procedure for the first time starting November 1. That visibly annoys the mayor, and also that the federal government has so far only responded "sluggishly" to the problem. "We demand that the federal government takes this into view and regulates it," said Tschentscher. Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister President Daniel Günther (CDU) emphasizes that his state likes to deliver, but the federal government must also help there: by continuing to support the construction of wind parks, especially smaller projects, with its regulation. Because more capacities are needed in the grid and more electricity is needed.
Planning, approval, and construction of such plants take several years. And the waiting lists of transformer manufacturers are long, because the demand for electricity is currently rising rapidly worldwide. It is a problem that can become much larger if action is not taken soon.
