"Protect renewable energies": where blackouts are threatening in Europe

Attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid, explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines: Concerns about the vulnerability of Europe's critical infrastructure are increasing.

"Protect renewable energies": where blackouts are threatening in Europe

Attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid, explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines: Concerns about the vulnerability of Europe's critical infrastructure are increasing. Not only Ukraine is at risk of a blackout. Renewable energies could help to avoid large-scale power failures in the future.

Since October, Russia has been attacking energy plants in Ukraine on a large scale and in a targeted manner. With missiles and drones. The Ukrainian energy grid is badly damaged. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 40 percent of the network has already been damaged. Power plants are partly broken or completely destroyed.

More than 1000 municipalities and cities in Ukraine have to do without electricity every day. In the capital Kyiv, too, there are repeated power and water failures. There is a plan which district and which region will get electricity when and for how long, reports ntv reporter Jürgen Weichert. The electricity is usually switched off for four hours a day.

Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko called the targeted attacks on the critical infrastructure a "genocide" on ntv. And he warned of further attacks on the Ukrainian infrastructure: "If it gets to minus 10 or minus 20 degrees outside, which happens every winter, then we'll have real problems."

The Ukrainians are trying to make ends meet: they are forging stoves for the winter, hospitals are installing huge wood-burning stoves and diesel generators, companies are adjusting their working hours to the power cuts. Help also comes from Germany. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief has brought several huge generators to Ukraine for the rescue services.

In acute crises such as power failures or blackouts, Europe steps in. While power outages mean a temporary interruption in power supply, blackouts last longer and affect larger regions. All member states and all other countries in the world can apply for help from the EU program for civil protection - this is also the case for natural disasters or forest fires. The countries concerned then receive electricity generators or water pumps, for example. The program has already sent five million iodine tablets to Ukraine for people living near threatened nuclear power plants.

"Security problems are possible," says Miranda Schreurs, Professor of Environment and Climate Policy at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, in the ntv podcast "Learned again". Therefore, Europe is trying to protect the infrastructure more. But that's not so easy, because there aren't enough staff for permanent monitoring: "You can't monitor pipelines or power grids all the time."

The sabotage actions on the Nord Stream pipelines in September and on Deutsche Bahn in October also show how vulnerable the critical infrastructure in Europe is. Since then, the federal police have been monitoring the railway lines selectively, but keeping a constant eye on tens of thousands of kilometers of track is of course impossible. The area in the Baltic Sea where the Nord Stream pipelines are located is also far too large to be completely monitored and protected.

Such sabotage attacks are only one reason for a large-scale blackout. Natural disasters such as floods and forest fires or cyber attacks are also possible.

When that happens, it is crucial who is affected. A single power failure in a country or at one location would still be manageable, says Miranda Schreurs: "Then you have teams that can rebuild the power grid within a very short time. If you are dealing with an act of terrorism that affects several countries or several locations at the same time within one country, that would of course be a difficult case."

One risk factor for a blackout is the current energy crisis. In Germany, the gas storage tanks are full. So the risk of that happening is very low for us, at least this winter. In other countries, blackouts are more likely in winter because gas is scarce there, for example in the Czech Republic. Miranda Schreurs warns of bottlenecks in Slovakia and Estonia. "The greatest danger is in the countries that are 100 percent dependent on Russian gas or oil. It's mostly the smaller countries, the Baltic countries or a country like Hungary."

There is also a risk of a blackout in France. About half of the nuclear power plants there are currently not in operation. The country produces much less electricity. France is therefore dependent on electricity imports from Germany. "In countries like Belgium, which are quite dependent on nuclear power plants, a blackout would also be possible if there were a technical problem," says the energy expert in the podcast.

In Germany, the expert considers a widespread power failure to be very unlikely. The danger is much higher next year because it will probably take longer to fill the gas storage tanks.

The EU Commission considers large-scale blackouts to be likely. The stress test of the four German transmission system operators also showed that in certain scenarios in certain regions of Europe, demand cannot be fully covered - without additional measures. The network operators had examined the effects of a critical situation on the energy markets on the electricity sector in Germany and Europe.

The head of technology at the largest German transmission system operator, Amprion, Hendrik Neumann, sees the danger that Germany will no longer be able to export electricity in winter. Otherwise your own power grid would collapse, Neumann told the Financial Times. However, such an export stop would only apply for a few hours.

That would still be a big problem for France, which relies on German electricity supplies. To prevent a blackout, the French network operator RTE is planning to turn off the warm water to people in an emergency. "The countries are currently trying to support each other so that there is no complete blackout in any country. In this case, it is necessary to save as much energy as possible. This is also the case in France at the moment," explains Miranda Schreurs "Learned something again" podcast.

A blackout is relatively rare. Smaller regional power outages, on the other hand, can occur more frequently. For example, when cables are accidentally destroyed during construction work. Or individual regions have to be temporarily taken off the grid when there is not enough energy, as can happen in the current energy crisis. The countries could buy electricity in other European countries. In the current situation, however, the possibilities are limited overall.

In order for the grid to remain stable, exactly as much electricity must always be fed in as is drawn. Electricity cannot be stored in the transmission grid.

In Germany, the network is stabilized, among other things, with generators in coal and nuclear power plants. They start up as soon as the frequency drops. They could be replaced by wind energy and photovoltaic systems. The Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology has researched this using wind turbines as an example.

Renewable energies could strengthen the power grid, says Miranda Schreurs. Their decentralization makes a blackout more difficult - that protects against attacks. In addition, renewable energies make us less dependent on fossil fuels.

The energy expert estimates that a shorter blackout would most likely not have a major impact. If a blackout lasts longer, it would be problematic for all public life. Heating and cooling systems would fail, public transport would stop running, water supply and sanitation would be disrupted. We could no longer make telephone calls and no longer use the Internet.

Miranda Schreurs is certain in the podcast that the most serious thing would be a large-scale power failure for industry. You would have to put your production on hold, the economy would be idle. She also sees the risk of protest movements developing in the event of recurring blackouts. "But my hope is that Europe will stick together and say what is happening in Ukraine is much worse than a brief blackout here in Europe."

The coming winter will be harder than the past ones. Europe needs to help each other out - especially with energy. European solidarity is facing a stress test.