German transmission system operator 50Hertz transported a record of about 60 terrawatt-hours of renewable electricity in 2019, mainly from wind and solar power.
50Hertz said last year clean power covered 60% of the annual electricity demand in the federal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony.
There was also less need to intervene in the operation of plants, the company said.
“With this so-called bottleneck management – feed-in management of renewable energy systems and redispatch with conventional power plants – 50Hertz was able to reduce the quantities from 4TWh (2018) to only 2.5TWh (2019), and the cost from €134m to €84m,” 50Hertz said.
The three northeastern states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt in particular will continue to generate large electricity surpluses in the future, it added.
“This shows that well-developed and secure power grids are still needed after the coal phase-out begins,” the company said.
50Hertz chief executive Stefan Kapferer said: “Northeastern Germany is increasingly becoming the ‘green power station’ of the energy transition in Germany.
“Even with a continuously increasing share of wind and solar power in the grid, we have the costs under control.
“And we stand for the security of the electricity system for the time after the exit from hard coal and brown coal power generation and create the necessary conditions for this.”
50Hertz said it will continue to invest heavily in electricity infrastructure for the energy transition.
Investments will increase by €1.1bn to €4.2bn between 2020 and 2024, compared with 2015 to 2019, the company said.
It also aims to raise about €750m this year in debt by issuing a green bond.