• Energy crisis worries many people
• Federal Network Agency considers blackout to be “extremely unlikely”
• Brownout is more likely – but the probability is low
advertising
Trade oil, gold, all commodities with leverage (up to 30) (starting at €100)
Take advantage of price fluctuations in oil, gold and other commodities with attractive leverage and small spreads! With only 100 euros you can start trading and use leverage e.g. B. benefit from the effect of 3,000 euros capital.
There is currently an energy crisis in Germany and Europe. Rapidly rising energy costs, which are largely the result of the Ukraine war triggered by Russia, are a burden on the Federal Republic of Germany and are causing great uncertainty among many people in view of the approaching winter. But it is not just the high costs that make people long, there is also uncertainty as to whether the security of supply will be guaranteed and whether there will be more power outages in the cold season. Some people even fear that Germany could face a blackout.
What is a blackout and how likely is such a scenario?
According to statements on the Federal Network Agency’s website, a blackout is “an uncontrolled and unforeseen failure of network elements”. If a blackout occurs, larger parts of the European power grid or even the entire grid fail. The reason for this could be an excessive electricity demand with insufficient generation paired with a serious error “at neuralgic points in the transmission network”. A blackout only occurs if, in addition to an undersupply, there are also serious errors in the network. However, since this is provided with several safeguards and backups to prevent a complete collapse, the Federal Network Agency considers a blackout to be “extremely unlikely”.
More likely: a brownout
What could happen sooner is a so-called brownout. According to the Federal Network Agency, however, the probability of this is also low. In a brownout, not enough electricity can be produced to meet demand. This can be due, for example, to the fact that there are not enough fuels available or power generation systems cannot be used for various reasons. If this happens, the demand for electricity has to be reduced so that the supply can cover the demand again. How is electricity demand reduced? By temporarily disconnecting consumers from the supply. However, this does not take place without prior notice and only on a regional basis. The electricity consumers are separated in turn, there is no prioritization of the customers, as is the case with the gas supply, for example. However, a shutdown must never last longer than four hours.
According to the Federal Network Agency, only a limited differentiation is made as to which region is switched off. When deciding which consumers are temporarily taken off the grid, it is important that electricity consumption is effectively reduced. After all, the transmission system operator must react quickly if a brownout scenario occurs. Since, for technical reasons, it is only possible for the network operator to control individual users in very few cases, it is rather difficult to continue supplying individual electricity consumers in the affected regions.
Consumers can help avoid brownout
Even if the Federal Network Agency considers it unlikely “that forced, large-scale load reduction will be necessary in the coming winter”, consumers can also do something to ensure that the power grid is not additionally burdened. The authority emphasizes that even small things that may appear ineffective to the consumer contribute to the fact that undersupply can be avoided. The Federal Network Agency recommends not leaving electrical devices in stand-by mode, but switching them off completely and generally paying attention to energy-saving settings for refrigerators, laptops, etc.
Stay away from electric fan heaters
In addition, the agency points out on its website the dangers of replacing gas heating with electric fan heaters. If many of these fan heaters are in operation at the same time, the local power consumption increases rapidly, which in turn can lead to entire streets being overloaded. If too many fan heaters are connected to the mains at the same time, the currents become too high and the voltage too low, which in turn causes the fuse or the transformer to react, which can provoke a local power failure. This can be avoided by using electric fan heaters only in absolute emergencies when other heating systems are not available.
Editorial office finanzen.net
More news about the price of natural gas – Natural Gas
Image sources: rzoze19 / Shutterstock.com, kaczor58 / Shutterstock.com