Germany’s way from conventional power grids towards smart grids

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of Germany's electric power system, its physical infrastructure, the regulatory environment, and the vision for smart grid development. The main topics presented were selected with the intention of providing examples of lessons learned and of sharing the German experience in the area of the main technological and regulatory challenges presented in the previous chapter.The chapter contains a detailed description of the historical development and current design of German electricity markets with a special emphasis on market liberalization policies. It also focuses on the effects of aggressively expanding RES generation capacities in the context of such markets. The evidence presented here might be insightful for Chinese policy-makers given their will to promote the establishment of electricity markets and to increase RES generation capacities.