In December, Germany’s Network Agency, which oversees the electricity grid, published its monitoring report for 2013. Craig Morris does us the favor of reviewing the full German edition. Today, he focuses on what the report says about reserve capacity. Even if you speak German, you will probably want to read the 29-page summary in English (PDF) of the 321-page full report in German (PDF). And while the report is for 2013, it mainly (though not exclusively) concerns data from 2012. But if you do stick to the short version, you will miss some of the goodies. Let’s start with re-dispatching, an indication that grid operators have to react to unexpected power flows – the report says that Transmission System Operators (TSOs) had to re-dispatch for 7,160 hours, 42.3 percent more than in 2011. The total amount of electricity involved (2.6 TWh) is, however, still only around 0.5 percent of total power production. Obviously, such an increase could be considered skyrocketing, but is less than one percent of power production low or high in an international … Continue reading Reserve capacity – Monitoring Report Part 1