ABSTRACT
Germany first generated electricity in a power plant
125 years ago. The existing German power grid is a
result of the increasing electricity use during the last
100 years. For the better part of that period the grid
development was organized by integrated, regional
monopolies. The promise of 100 % supply at any
time, i.e. stability of the grid, was valued over cost
efficiency in the monopoly years, because the costs
simply could be rolled over to the consumer prices.
Germany experienced no blackouts in those years,
due to high backup capacities.