Bayreuth, Berlin, Dortmund, Stuttgart
– Not enough solar power station operators are implementing the legally required adjustment of the disconnection criteria by modifying the settings or installing new inverters and disconnection safeguards. As a result, the four German transmission system operators (TSOs) find it necessary to point out the consequences of violating the obligation to cooperate in the conversion programme. Failure to report the relevant power stations within the legal deadlines can lead to the temporary cancellation of feed-in remunerations. The retrofitting works shall be concluded by certain dates depending on the size of the power station. The larger solar power stations need to be retrofitted by 31 August 2013.
The law prescribes that the power station operators shall complete and return the questionnaires they received before a fixed date. Should they fail to do so within this term, the system operator is legally obliged to stop the payment of feed-in remunerations until retrofitting has been performed.
The reason for this regulation is the manner in which solar power plants react to a critical system frequency, which can lead to system stability issues, especially in the transmission grid. Since 2005, solar power plants are required to disconnect from the grid if the frequency exceeds a certain threshold. As this happens simultaneously for each power station, it can lead to breakdowns in the power grid. That is why a nationwide conversion of inverters is now mandatory, so that in the future, the stations will disconnect from the grid in a multitiered order. New power stations installed in January 2012 or after are exempt from this obligation.
The conversion is free of charge for power station operators. Nevertheless, they have a legal duty to cooperate if contacted by their competent system operator.
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