The municipal utility subsidiary Wiesbaden Netz GmbH sees the mass purchase of fan heaters for private households as a threat to the Wiesbaden power grid.
It therefore urgently warns against overloading the network and makes it clear: fan heaters are “no alternative to gas supply”.
Oliver Bock
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.
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The reason for this is the observation by those responsible at the public utility company that the electric fans in the region's DIY stores are in high demand as supposed support in the event of a possible gas shortage.
"Don't do it," says Peter Lautz.
The managing director of Stadtwerke Wiesbaden Netz GmbH warns: "Excessive use can overload our power grids and thus lead to uncontrollable power failures." Radiators that are usually connected to the 230-volt household socket and usually have an output of between 1000 and 3000 watts.
With a total length of 3,230 kilometers, Wiesbaden's power grid is "excellently developed and monitored around the clock," says Lautz, who, with his 130 employees, is responsible for a high quality of supply in the state capital.
Nevertheless, it is a "finely coordinated system" that is designed for "usual consumption" in Wiesbaden, including a safety reserve.
If the power grid is confronted with an unexpected and unusually high overload, the grid is automatically switched off as a protective measure.
Then no more current flows.
Heating with electricity is expensive
Unlike night storage heaters or heat pumps, the mobile heating devices cannot be switched off by the public utility company if there is a risk of overload.
And if the devices are not switched off by the citizens in the event of a power failure, there is hardly any opportunity to restart the networks quickly and reliably.
"A long power failure can be the result," it warns, referring to the current advice of the Energy Technology Society in the Association of Electrical Engineering and the Association of Gas and Water.
These associations also advise against the increased use of fan heaters.
In addition to local grid overloads, there is still the risk that the German power plant capacity will not be sufficient for these additional loads.
The Association of Gas and Water Experts adds: "We classify developments as completely wrong and misdirected, wanting to spend the winter with electric radiant heaters, because heating with electricity is expensive and can lead to overloading of the system.
The gas network can deal much better with heat demand peaks, because that's what it's designed for.
On cold winter days, it delivers three times the amount of energy as the power grid.”
The Wiesbadener Stadtwerke give a simple calculation of the two associations: About half of the approximately 40 million German households heat with gas.
If only half of these households were to run an electric heater on a cold winter's day, this would roughly correspond to an additional electricity consumption of around 20 gigawatts.
That is a quarter more than the current annual peak load.
A load that neither the power grids nor the power plants could withstand.
From the point of view of the municipal utility, there is no reason at all to buy a fan heater and plug the power cable into the socket in winter: Private gas heating customers are given special legal protection.
They would continue to be supplied even in a “shortage situation”.
If you want to prepare for the winter, you should start with energy-saving measures now and have your gas heating professionally serviced before the winter.
Reducing the room temperature by one degree also saves six percent of energy.