Households across Germany experienced an average of 13.7 minutes without electricity in 2023 due to incidents such as construction-related damages to power lines, according to a study by the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE). The data, derived from network operators managing approximately 75% of Germany's power grid, revealed an increase in weather-related interruptions compared to the previous year. In 2022, the average interruption lasted 11.8 minutes under the new metrics.

Causes of Power Interruptions

The study highlighted ongoing road and broadband construction since 2020 as a key factor for disruptions due to frequent damage to power cables. VDE reports that the frequency of power interruptions per customer stood at 0.34 in 2023, suggesting an occurrence of roughly one disruption every three years per customer.

Impact of Severe Weather

Additional outages caused by acts of nature were noted, however, with an average of 4.3 minutes of interruptions in 2023 attributed to weather events including the storms Ronson, Denis, and Zoltan, and snowstorm Robin. Planned outages contributed another approximately five minutes to the downtime.

International Comparison

Despite these interruptions, VDE considers Germany's electricity supply to be among the most stable globally. Germany ranks behind South Korea, with an average of 9.1 minutes of outages in 2023, and Japan, with 10 minutes in 2021. In contrast, the Netherlands recorded 21.8 minutes, and Austria 23.2 minutes of outages in 2022. Comparatively, the United States faced significantly longer outages with 131.1 minutes in 2022, while China experienced an average of 822 minutes in 2019.

Challenges and Future Prospects

The shift towards renewable energy is straining grid capacity and complicating system operations, VDE notes. Consequently, grid-related measures are increasingly necessary to maintain safe network and system operations. Nonetheless, the expansion of renewable energy in 2023 did not significantly impact supply quality, thanks to the efforts of network operators to ensure grid and system security.

This report was initially covered by heise online.