2012
50Hertz
In Germany, one continuous topic of discontent in discussions with stakeholders has been that load flow data is not publicly available.
Both environmental NGOs and citizens pointed out that they could not judge the need of a new line or the connection between the expansion of renewables and new grids if the data was not available. As a response to this, 50Hertz started publishing its load flow data on its website in April 2012. In an interactive map, users can retrace the past flows on the electricity lines. All extra-high voltage lines are shown with their capacity utilisation. The user can download information for a specific point in time or animations on the development over a period of time. Lines are shown in colours (green for low capacity, red for high), exact numbers of the transmitted load are additionally available. All data can furthermore be downloaded as interactive excel spreadsheets. Data comes from the transmission control centre from 50Hertz and is updated on a daily basis.
One interesting element of this initiative explained by 50Hertz is that most of the data was available also before the installation of the tool – however, only in printed report format. 50Hertz notes that the new format is better received and appreciated by the different stakeholder groups.