Complete Blackout Unlikely in Germany

It’s an abbreviation that saves lives -- USV, uninterrupted electricity flow -- and it belongs to the standard equipment in every German hospital. In the event of a total power outage as in the northeastern United States and Canada, USV would immediately spring to life, pumping electricity to all the hospital’s intensive care machines with juice from a giant battery, but just for a brief moment. Only 15 seconds after a shutdown in the electricity network, the hospital’s own emergency power unit kicks into action.

A diesel motor and a generator form a mini power plant and take over the complete electricity production. In this way an entire hospital complex can function for an extended period without relying on the public energy supply. A giant three-day-tank holds enough diesel to carry the power unit through an initial emergency period, and every hospital is required to keep a reserve of diesel for at least 24 hours. Every month technicians conduct an hour-long test on the emergency power units, to check for maintenance problems and breaks in the circuitry.

All of this is required by law. And most other institutions integral to the smooth functioning of German society, such as large banks, the Deutsche Bahn rail system and the airports, are also outfitted with such equipment. Experts say Germany could quickly respond to a widespread blackout, although there has never been a real test of the system. Statistics, however, speak for themselves, they argue, and compared to other industrialized nations, Germany has had the lowest number of minutes of electrical failure in the past year, just 15.

Keeping things running

Unlike in the hospitals, the business conducted in the Commerzbank in Frankfurt is not about life or death. But the situation could nevertheless become pretty dramatic for the people working in Europe’s largest office building. That’s why a special emergency power unit was installed for the unlikely event of a complete blackout. At the most a couple hundred computers would shut down when the power goes off, but the 2,000 some employees wouldn’t have to worry about lost work. Within seconds the building’s own power unit springs to life and produces enough electricity for the 300-meter high building, the computer systems and all the work spaces. The elevators would continue to run and the automatic windows would open – nothing like what happened on Thursday on Wall Street would be occur here.

Even Frankfurt International Airport would be difficult to shut down. A lot would have to happen before the lights go off and all flights are grounded, says Fraport spokesman Jürgen Harrer. Although he didn’t want to rule it out completely, he told reporters that it was "highly unlikely" the Rhein-Main airport would fail to function and be forced to close as was the case with three airports in New York.

Two independent energy providers keep each other in check and ensure that the airport is continuously powered. If, however, both should break down, the airport’s own 57 diesel-powered generators would take over the energy production. These could supply enough electricity to power everything from the lighting on the runway to the escalators in the terminals.

And Germany’s largest energy consumer, the Deutsche Bahn railway, is undaunted by the events in the United States. The company believes a complete outage on its rail lines is "impossible." Because the DB runs its own power plants and feeds in electricity from several different independent energy consortiums, it would take quite a bit to bring the trains to a halt. "In an extreme case we could even get electricity from our European neighbors," company spokesman Petra Dowdall told Spiegel Online.

Prevention and overproduction are keys

The director of the energy consortium Energie Baden Württemberg, Utz Claassen, attributes Germany’s stabile energy supply to its focus on prevention and technology. "Germany is the worldwide leader" here, he told ARD television.

Germany’s electricity networks are also considerably closer-knit than in the United States. There are fewer providers feeding from several different power plants within a regional network, and they are all integrated into the larger European energy network which stretches from Norway to Sicily. European power plants always work with a considerable margin of overproduction, unlike in the United States where intense competition has forced providers to be stingy on production, pumping out just what the demand requires, says Germany’s energy expert Klaus Traube. As a whole Europe could easily accommodate a loss of 3,000 megawatts of electricity at one time.

Wulf Bernotat, director of E.ON, Germany’s largest energy provider, is convinced that "whenever and wherever there is a power outage, an alternative plant will immediately kick in and start producing the extra amount required." If necessary, the plant can draw on electricity from a distant source outside the country, he was quoted as saying in Spiegel magazine.

In order to continue to maintain a stabile energy flow in the future, Germany must invest in its electrical lines, says István Erlich, professor for electrical-technology and networks at the university of Duisburg. In an interview with ARD, he worries that although Germany currently has a tightly regulated energy network and functioning power lines, the transit paths will naturally increase with their integration in the European network. It will take longer for electricity to flow from the source to demand points and these paths are more susceptible to interruptions. As a whole, Europe also needs to increase the number of power plants it has and its surplus capacity. If this doesn’t happen, then a power outage could be the result, albeit not to the extent of the current U.S. blackout.