Status: 05.09.2022 1:56 p.m
A second stress test should check whether the power supply also works under more severe conditions. Economics Minister Habeck is presenting the results today. It also depends on them whether several nuclear power plants run longer.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck presented the results of the second stress test for the electricity market in the evening. The press conference at 6:00 p.m. will also be attended by representatives of transmission system operators.
The purpose of the stress test was to examine the effects of the tense situation on the energy markets on the security of the electricity supply. A first stress test from March to May showed that the supply is secure. For the second stress test, the conditions were tightened again.
These included, for example, even higher price assumptions than in the first stress test, an even more serious failure of gas supplies and a greater failure of French nuclear power plants. The situation in Bavaria was also included in the review. The expansion of wind energy is sluggish there, and the same applies to grid expansion.
Basis for decision on nuclear power plant continued operation
With a view to the results, the decision on a possible continued operation of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany beyond the end of the year should also be made.
According to information from the Reuters news agency, the test suggests the continued operation of the Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 reactors in two of the three scenarios tested. However, the third remaining Emsland nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony will not be needed over the winter.
In the nuclear phase-out, it was actually agreed that Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland would be the last reactors to be shut down on December 31st. In the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, however, calls for an extension of the service life had become louder and louder.
The Union and the FDP are demanding continued operation. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr wants a decision to be made quickly. Among other things, this would relieve the prices on the energy market. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said that continued operation could “make sense”.
Greens want to advise “in peace”.
The Greens in the Bundestag announced that they would like to discuss the results of the stress test in detail. She assumes “that we will also have the opportunity to discuss this in the next few days,” says parliamentary group leader Britta Hasselmann. “For us as a group, it is clear that when the stress test is presented, we will of course discuss it calmly and derive from it what steps are necessary.”
The Green Party chairwoman Ricarda Lang had previously said about a stretching operation: “We have never categorically ruled that out, but we have always checked what makes sense at this moment.”
Habeck had made it clear that the reactors could do practically nothing in the fight against gas shortages. However, without ideology, he would use the test to check whether they could help secure the power supply in southern Germany over the winter.
With information from Claudia Plass, ARD capital studio