Austrian Power Grid AG (APG) is also to be control area manager for Vorarlberg from 2012. Vorarlberger Übertragungsnetz GmbH and Austrian Power Grid AG are entering into a close cooperation concerning the running of the power grid. The Vorarlberg power grid continues to be owned by Vorarlberger Übertragungsnetz GmbH. A cost-effective implementation of the 3rd EU liberalisation package is therewith ensured.
Austrian Power Grid AG (APG), Vorarlberger Übertragungsnetz GmbH and the regulatory authority, E-Control, announce an important course for the future of the Austrian high and extra-high voltage grid. From 2012, the VERBUND grid subsidiary and Vorarlberger Übertragungsnetz GmbH, a subsidiary of Vorarlberg energy service provider illwerke vkw, and the province of Vorarlberg will be entering into a close cooperation concerning the running of the Vorarlberg power grid.
The catalyst for this close cooperation was the EU’s third liberalisation package for the energy market and the associated regulations on the unbundling of the market and infrastructure units, which have been implemented in Austria by the Ministry of the Economy and Energy via the ElWOG (electricity economy organisation law). The current cooperation enables a cost-effective implementation of the package’s guidelines for power grid operators. “The transmission lines remain in the hands of Vorarlberg and this infrastructure, which is important for Vorarlberg, is therewith safeguarded for future generations as well,” said illwerke vkw chairman, Dr. Christof Germann. The growing demands placed on the power grid operators had led to distinct additional costs in the grid operation.
An important component of this cooperation is the merging of hitherto separated control areas into one control area under the management of APG. Henceforth, Austrian Power Grid AG is thus control area manager for the whole of Austria. In this role, APG is responsible for the physical balancing of electricity generation and electricity demand in the entire control area – which represents the whole of Austria from 2012. “Austrian Power Grid AG has the statutory duty to operate and maintain the high and extra-high voltage grid in the control area in an efficient and non-discriminating manner,” said Dr. Ulrike Baumgartner-Gabitzer, VERBUND board member responsible for the grid sector.
Mitterlehner: Sustained advantages through greater supply security and efficiency
"The improved cooperation of the Austrian power grid operators helps to raise synergy potential and also to operate in the area of grid development above and beyond company boundaries,” stressed Economy and Energy Minister Dr. Reinhold Mitterlehner, commenting on the new collaboration. "A long-term supply security is therewith guaranteed and the energy industry is given a solid infrastructure basis. At the same time, Vorarlberg’s large hydropower potential can thus be optimally utilised," said Mitterlehner. In addition, the collaboration results in simplifications in European power trading, since Austria now only has one contact person, and standardisation of the system in the balancing energy market raises synergy potentials.
“The set-up time lasted for approximately one year. Comprehensive technical and legal groundwork was necessary from the time of the initial talks with the Vorarlberg energy service provider, illwerke vkw, until the start of the cooperation,” said Austrian Power Grid AG board member Thomas Karall. The supervision of the expanded control area and the power grids is carried out from the central control station in southeast Vienna, which first opened in 2009 and which has already been designed to meet the new tasks.
Walter Bolz, chairman of the regulatory authority E-Control, welcomed the merging of the two control areas as an important milestone in the longstanding positive development of the Austrian electricity market and as an especially important contribution to the future-oriented power supply for all Austrian electricity customers. “The efficiency and functioning of the control and balancing energy markets is thereby given a special importance – the cooperation of the two power grid operators facilitates an even more efficient and effective utilisation of Austria’s large reserves of clean energy from hydropower,” the regulator concluded.