Power supply: No new house connections in Oranienburg

Oranienburg has a serious problem with its electricity supply. The Brandenburg town has apparently underestimated the consumption of its new buildings and is unable to install any new house connections for the time being.

Federal Network Agency finds fault with Oranienburg

Anyone currently building a house in the Brandenburg town of Oranienburg is probably having sleepless nights, and rightly so. After all, the mandatory electricity connection is likely to be in a bad state. With immediate effect, the municipality is no longer issuing permits for new house connections. This is a first in the whole of Germany. Never before has a municipality had to impose a permit freeze.

But this problem came with a warning. After all, the municipality, which is located in the Berlin suburbs, is very popular with families. In recent years, a correspondingly large number of new buildings have been erected, most of which were built with heat pumps and wallboxes. As a result, the electricity demand in the municipality has quickly increased.

The Federal Network Agency has now also commented on the issue. The federal authority told the news agency dpa that “according to a preliminary assessment by the Federal Network Agency […] it is a matter of misjudgements in the planning”. Accordingly, the mistakes will have to be found in the municipality itself.

High-voltage grid reaches its limits

Grid operator Edis is responsible for Oranienburg’s electricity supply. However, according to the municipality’s public utility company, the electricity supplier has already reached its limits. More power simply cannot be provided. This is a super disaster with an announcement. After all, the problem became known over a year ago, which is why an expansion of the substation was requested.

Oranienburg town hall is now looking for the causes of the sudden problem. Mayor Alexander Laesicke cites several reasons. For example, there has been strong economic growth in the region. On top of this, “the increased installation of heat pumps” can be observed. As a result, the demand for electricity has grown faster than originally calculated.

It will certainly not be possible to solve the problem from one day to the next. Although a new transformer station is to cover the increased electricity demand, it will be some time before this is connected to the grid. It is not due to go online until the end of 2026. Until then, Oranienburg wants to work at full speed with Edis to find an interim solution.