About 50Hertz

The 50Hertz grid is unique in one particular regard: the infeed of electricity from renewable energy sources, mainly from wind turbines, reaches peak values that are the highest in the world. In 2017, the share of renewable energies in power consumption was 53.4 per cent. For comparison: This part only reaches 36.2 per cent in the whole of Germany. 

• Why is it special to have a very high share of renewable energy in a power grid? Because renewable energy is volatile and its use cannot be reliably planned due to natural causes. This represents a huge challenge with regards to controlling the grid as its stability depends on the balance between the electricity input and output according to physical laws.
• Here, the key responsibility of transmission system operators in making the energy transition successful gets visible. The frequency of the alternating current transported shows how close we are to the exact balance. We have therefore made the target frequency of 50 hertz our trademark. The live frequency displayed on this page shows you how well we maintain the balance.

• Digitisation of the energy transition can deliver important answers to this challenge. Systematisation of data supply at the producers, continuous further development of forecast tools on a big data scale as well as company-wide data and business process integration have been occupying us for some time. We are currently introducing smart meters to measure the fluctuations on the consumer side. The development of algorithms to process the generated data will bring us another step closer to further integration of renewable energy sources.
• The high share of volatile energy production in the 50Hertz grid area makes 50Hertz a kind of ‘energy transition lab’ and, thus, one of the much-noticed protagonists in the technical development of transmission grids and a respected partner in designing future energy markets.

The challenges of the energy transition have stronglyanged 50Hertz and continue to do so. This offers you the opportunity for further and ambitious development together with the Company.

• You take control of your professional development, supported by your manager. You are in continuous dialogue. The annual appraisal interview also offers you a structured framework for this dialogue and, if necessary, you can seek advice from colleagues in the talent development department.
• We feel that growth opportunities are particularly valuable if they go hand in hand with assuming new or temporarily greater responsibilities, for instance within a project, in the scope of a rotation or representation.
• Another important opportunity to improve your own range and to grow by assuming new tasks is the continuous position rotation within the company. At 50Hertz, internal applications are preferred in case of identical qualifications. The company also greatly benefits from such a change of perspective.
• Given the actual demographic development, many positions will need to be filled by experienced professionals in the coming years.  This also offers interesting opportunities hances to internal applicants.
• Together with our shareholder, the Belgian system operator Elia, we have established international development programmes, which - depending on your professional experience - offer you the opportunity for intensive personal development  and to present yourself beyond your field of work. In addition, there is the rotation programme that we set up together with Elia.
• The cooperation of 50Hertz with the other European transmission system operators or the coordination centres for system security (Coreso, TSCNET, JAO[1] ) offer further possibilities to gain international experience, for instance during a temporary assignment.
• In the last employee survey (2014), about 70 % of the employees stated that they were satisfied to very satisfied with their opportunities for professional development.

• 50Hertz is a company bound by a collective agreement and employees are represented by a work council. Our collective agreement was negotiated by the Industrial Union for Mining, Chemistry and Energy (IG BCE). The aspect ‘salary and social benefits’ is currently evaluated as ‘very good’ (4.1 out of 5) on the employer assessment portal Kununu.
• Flexible working hours to individually adjust the weekly working time of 37 hours, different ways of short-term flexibility, leave days and sabbaticals make it possible to take into account different living situations and achieve a better work-life balance. Time credits from the flexitime account can be transferred to a long-term account for later individual use, e.g. for a sabbatical.
• At the Berlin offices, we offer childcare facilities in our “Energiebündel” kindergarten and a parent-child office for short-term childcare needs.
• From the date of employment, you can participate in the company pension scheme through deferred compensation. After two years in the company, 50Hertz sponsors up to 4 % of your monthly contribution to the pension scheme, depending on your own share.
• You can choose from numerous health promotion courses such as exercise, nutrition, stress management and smoking cessation, participate in yoga, qigong or Feldenkrais or get active in one of the sports clubs sponsored by the company (this is partly only possible in Berlin).
• 50Hertz offers discounted lunch at all its locations, and in some cases even more. The Berlin employee restaurant prepares fresh meals daily.
• Moreover, and thanks to its range of benefits, 50Hertz has ranked 4th out of 30 in the Capital magazine & Kienbaum HR Consulting ranking (see Capital, issue 09/2017, pp. 30-41).