Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022 edition - Flipbook - Page 99
Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022
Grid operators are under a statutory
obligation to improve their grids to comply
with the state of the art in order to ensure the
receipt, transmission and distribution of
power from renewable energies, unless the
required measures are commercially
unreasonable. However, the development of
the onshore grid lags behind the increase of
installed renewable energy capacities, in
particular in the north of Germany where the
expansion of renewables is faster than in the
south. In order to prevent critical grid
situations, the grid operators are entitled to
conduct feed-in management measures and
remote control OWTGs in exceptional cases
(cf. sec. 14 of the Renewable Energies Act) if
(i) a capacity shortage in the relevant grid area
would be caused otherwise, (ii) the feed-in
priority for renewables is complied with
(unless other power sources need to be
connected to the grid in order to ensure the
security and reliability of the grid), and (iii)
the available actual feed-in data for the
relevant grid area have been obtained. In
general, feed-in from renewable energies is
prioritised by law over feed-in from other
sources. This also applies in case of feed-in
management measures. In case the remote
control of the OWTG is foreseeable, the grid
operator shall inform the owner at least on the
day prior to the measure or otherwise without
undue delay. The grid operator to whose grid
the relevant OWTG is connected is obliged to
compensate the affected owner the lost feed-in
revenues less saved expenditure (cf. sec. 15 of
the Renewable Energies Act). The grid
operator is entitled to consider the costs for
the compensation for feed-in management
measures in the grid fees.
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VI. Real estate
G. Rights over land to be secured
In the German Exclusive Economic Zone, no
particular land rights need to be secured
since this area is not owned by anyone.
Although Germany has certain sovereign
rights in the EEZ, these are functionally
limited. Under territorial law, the EEZ, is
therefore “no man’s land”. Neither Germany
nor any other state owns the seabed in the
EEZ.
The relevant permission to use the respective
land in the EEZ is included in the planning
approval issued under the Offshore Wind
Energy Act.
The seabed within the 12nm zone is
technically a land plot or consists of multiple
land plots owned by the Federal Republic of
Germany. The respective right to use such
property for WTG or cable system
installations is included in the respective
planning approval.
Onshore, the respective operator/owner of
the installation, which uses the land, needs
to secure such use by means of private law
licence/use agreement in case of private
landowners or municipalities. Since the use
of onshore land plots is only required for the
onshore grid connection and since this falls
under the responsibility of the TSO, the OWF
owners and developers do not need to take
care of these issues.