Energy crisis: Habeck considers the continued operation of nuclear power plants necessary

Economics Minister Habeck assumes that the two nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim will have to remain connected to the grid until April 2023. The background is the forecasts for electricity production by French nuclear power plants.

According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, it is likely that two nuclear power plants in Germany will continue to operate beyond the end of the year. It is currently assumed that the “reserve” will be drawn and that the Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim nuclear power plants will also be connected to the grid in the first quarter of 2023.

Together with the operators of the nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, his ministry has agreed on the key points for the implementation of the planned deployment reserve, he explained. These are to be cast in law by the end of October. In order to make the reserve possible, the operators would now do everything necessary to ensure that the systems could continue to be operated beyond December 31, 2023 at the latest.

After the end of their regular service life on December 31, 2022, the two nuclear power plants are to be transferred to an operational reserve. They are ready to prevent an impending power grid bottleneck in southern Germany. A leak in the Isar 2 nuclear power plant is to be repaired in October. The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant will be “reconfigured” at the beginning of 2023 and will then also be available. The third still active nuclear power plant in Emsland should not be part of this emergency reserve and should be shut down by the end of the year.

Precarious situation in France

The main reason for the decision is the tense situation on the electricity market, which is strongly related to the lack of production in France – there are currently many nuclear power plants at a standstill. As a result, there was a lack of electricity, which Germany compensates for in part with electricity from gas-fired power plants, according to Habeck. If the situation in France develops poorly, the stress factors for the German electricity system will intensify.

Habeck referred to a French stress test of the local transmission system operator. The results are also the basis for the assessment of the French government. “As the minister responsible for energy security, I must therefore say: If this development is not reversed, we will leave Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim on the grid in the first quarter of 2023.”