Hildegard Mueller, Chairman, BDEW Executive Board

Berlin, Germany --- (METERING.COM) --- March 1, 2013 - The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft e.V., BDEW) earlier this month released a roadmap for the development of smart grids in Germany to 2022.

The roadmap identifies three market phases and proposes ten concrete steps to transform the country’s energy system and enable smart grids by 2022.

These are as follows:
Preparation phase – setting the framework – 2012-2014

• Step 1 – Delimitation and interaction of the market and the network
• Step 2 – Legal and regulatory framework
• Step 3 – Research and demonstration, and pilot projects
• Step 4 – Standards, norms, privacy and data security

Implementation phase – adaptation of infrastructure and processes – 2014-2018

• Step 5 – Network sensors, rollout of smart metering
• Step 6 – Automation of network according to cost-benefits
• Step 7 – Local and global optimization of the energy system
• Step 8 – Storage and electromobility, hybrid grids

Market phase – 2018-2022 and beyond

• Steps 9 and 10 – Variable generation and consumption through a combination of smart generation and load management under a transparent market framework. Also a convergence of the electricity, heat/cold and gas grids to hybrid grids should be supported.

“Today's distribution networks need to be upgraded for (the increasing decentralization of power generation),” said Hildegard Mueller, chairman of BDEW’s Executive Board. “The energy network operator faces enormous challenges to ensure that the distribution can be expanded intelligently for renewable energy, and there is now a roadmap from BDEW as to how this can be done realistically by 2022.”

According to the roadmap it is clear that the development of smart grids requires not only the removal of regulatory barriers to actually invest in new technologies, but also the necessary time – hence the multi-phase process proposed.

The roadmap is being submitted to the Ministry of Economics (BMWi) to provide the basis for further discussion in the ministry’s Platform for Sustainable Networks, according to a BDEW statement.