Production of intermittent green electricity has risen sharply over the last few years in Germany, and industry occasionally voices concern about the security of the power supply. But Germany still has one of the most reliable electricity grids in the world, and according to the country’s grid agency BNetzA, actual power blackouts are increasingly caused by extreme weather events, rather than by the transition to renewable energies. [Update January 2020]

Germany’s power grid stability and security of supply has been stable over recent years despite a huge expansion of intermittent green electricity production. Average power outages per consumer amounted to just under 14 minutes in 2018 , a slight decrease from a little over 15 minutes in 2017, according to the Federal Network Agency ( BNetzA ). “The energy transition and the rising share of decentralised generating capacity continue to have no negative effects on the quality of supply,” the agency said in a press release. The slightly higher level of interruptions in 2017 was caused by extreme weather events like storms, floods and snow, rather than the energy transition. “Interruption times in the distribution network caused by weather events more than doubled compared to a year earlier,” […]