Power-to-heat: 50Hertz and Stadtwerke Halle implement project for efficient conversion of electricity into heat

When the wind farms in the north-east of Germany are generating too much electricity during strong wind episodes and it cannot immediately be consumed locally or be transported to a more remote destination, wind turbines must be curtailed to protect the power lines and substations against overloads. The operators of the wind turbines receive damages as compensation. As a result of the cooperation between 50Hertz and EVH, some of this electricity will be put to efficient use to supply heat to the city of Halle (Saale). 

Dirk Biermann, Chief Markets and System Operations Officer at 50Hertz: "The 'using instead of curtailing' principle makes economic and ecological sense, as it allows the potential of renewable energy to be exploited more fully. Our 50Hertz System Control in Neuenhagen near Berlin will be able to deploy the PtH unit from the control centre of EVH, so that more renewable energy can be integrated into the energy system and at the same time remove bottlenecks in the electricity grid. The Halle region in the south of Saxony-Anhalt offers good conditions for such projects, as it has a high supply of wind power." So far, Halle is the seventh 50Hertz PtH project; the total capacity of all contracted units in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and now Saxony-Anhalt exceeds 180 MW.

PtH units are large electrode boilers and function like XXL-size immersion heaters. The process converts electrical energy into thermal energy. Legal requirement for the cooperation is a switch in the German Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz, EnWG). A restriction, so that the financing by the transmission system operator was only secured in regions near the coast was abrogated. Plants as the one in Halle can now also be realised in the more southern regions with the support of the transmission system operator.