Nuclear power plant phase-out: horror scenarios stay away – future worries gone

Various horror scenarios were predicted for the time after the shutdown of the last nuclear power plants. Not a single one of these has come true and the responsible state authorities are very relaxed.

“The effects are extremely small,” said Barbie Kornelia Haller, Vice President of the Federal Network Agency Bavarian radio. There were no bottlenecks and the price increases that were allegedly feared did not materialize either – the electricity price on the exchanges actually went down a little further.

There are several reasons for that. On the one hand, nuclear power plants only had a small share of the German electricity market anyway. The weather conditions also ensured that the main renewable sources, wind power and photovoltaics, delivered more. And the fluctuations within the European electricity network ultimately have greater effects than the three power plants that finally went off the grid in mid-April.

Even if there are no exact figures for the last few weeks, it can be said for the past few months that the renaissance of coal-fired power generation that some had expected has also not materialized. Due to the energy crisis, several coal-fired power plants from the emergency reserve were prepared for activation again, but in the end they almost never ran to compensate for bottlenecks. Last winter, even 10 terawatt hours less electricity from coal was fed into the grid than in the previous year.

Hardly any worries about the future

In southern Germany in particular, where wind power is only slightly developed and the expansion of lines to the wind power and coal locations in the north is lagging behind, it was necessary to resort to foreign aid. Hydroelectric power plants from Switzerland and gas-fired power plants from Austria are particularly important here. However, the import quantities were not higher here than in previous years.

Meanwhile, no difficulties are expected for the coming winter – the first without nuclear power either. The expansion of renewables is gaining momentum and the tense situation on the French energy market seems to be calming down a bit for the time being. The power exchanges are already feeling correspondingly confident: The futures for power supplies in the coming winter are already being traded more cheaply than in comparable times in previous years.

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