The ever-growing number of electric vehicles and heat pumps can overload the German power grid, so the Federal Grid Agency plans to change the rules as early as 2024.
“If so many new heat pumps and charging stations continue to be installed, then we have to fear local power outages in the distribution network,” said Klaus Müller, president of the Federal Network Agency, to the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday, according to the German publication Auto-Motor-und-Sport.
In order to avoid such situations, the network agency wants to have the possibility to limit the electricity supply to private households in the future, and this would only apply to heat pumps and electric car charging. In practice, it could look like, in crisis situations, you could only charge your own electric car for three hours or 50 kilometers a day. The agency emphasizes that charging will not be completely disabled, but it will happen at a lower capacity, and residents will still be able to rely on electric heating and no one will have to freeze in their homes.
Although it is still a plan still to be approved by the government, Auto-Motor-und-Sport sees it as another blow to the future of electric cars.
After chip shortages, reduced environmental premiums and rising electricity prices as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Federal Grid Agency’s plan could make e-cars less attractive to many consumers, as power rationing sounds like the car can’t be used when it’s needed .
Criticism also comes from the automotive industry. “If charging at home were only possible to a limited extent, the convenience of the user would be significantly affected,” says Hildegarde Müller, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). To this, the authors of the project reply that car charging at public charging stations or charging parks will not be restricted in any way.
German media note that this topic is far from new, recalling that experts have been warning for a long time that the rapidly increasing demand for electricity could become a problem if the use of coal and nuclear power were to be stopped at the same time. At the same time, the solution to the problem could be electric cars with two-way charging technology, which could serve as a kind of buffer in the event of a crisis.
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