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Today’s electricity grid isn’t ready for tomorrow

We’re supporting companies and countries to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure
graphic on annual investments in power grids
Making renewables fully deliverable

Today’s electricity grids are not equipped to handle a major rise in renewable energy. By 2030, the global length of transmission lines needs to increase by almost 2.5m km, and distribution networks by over 16m km.

Making progress with our customers

We’re on a sustained drive to help our customers make the transmission of energy more sustainable. Almost 1400 installations of products from our F-gas-free Blue portfolio are now in operation worldwide, saving 2.5m tons of CO2e emissions.

View on the sf6 free switschgear at bbk in Bergen, Norway.
Tim Holt

" As the demand for renewables power generation increases, we need to expand and modernize our transmission grids. If not, renewable energy cannot reach its full potential”

Tim Holt, Member of the Executive Board, Siemens Energy

Specific challenges and solutions

We focus on enabling our customers to upgrade electrical grids in two ways:

Increasing robustness

The existing infrastructure needs to be made more resilient and flexible to cope with fluctuations in energy supply and ever-increasing demand.

Our highly efficient Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) play an important role in balancing these fluctuations and maintaining robustness. We also offer the world’s most sustainable portfolio of grid technologies, including high-voltage clean-air switchgear and transformers, HVDC services and digital solutions.

Expanding storage

Energy storage systems are crucial to the energy transition, ensuring 24/7 availability of electricity from renewable sources. We are developing a variety of storage solutions, including batteries and green hydrogen.

In addition, our HVDC technology makes possible the exchange of electricity across borders, enabling different national power grids to support each other.

outside of a converter station
Energy transition targets

We have definite aims for strengthening the power grids:

  • By offering an innovative portfolio to enable the creation of a transmission network strong enough and large enough to meet the demands of the future
  • By actively advocating the reduction and acceleration of approval procedures to speed up the expansion of grids
converter station with sf6 free switchgears
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Shifting away from SF6

SF6 – the gas most commonly used in switchgear – is over 25,000 times more climate-hostile than CO2. The Blue portfolio from Siemens Energy uses natural-origin gases instead, meaning zero harmful emissions. Get clued up on clean air here:

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Stabilizing renewable power

The worldwide power sector has witnessed significant disruption, growth, and change in recent years. Siemens Energy has developed modern, flexible, high capacity grid stabilizing solutions.

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