Sunshine vs. the grid: Why the Czech Republic had to shutdown their solar plants over Easter

A Czech energy company has been forced to unplug hundreds of solar panels after they generated more power than the grid could handle.

Electricity use was low in the Czech Republic on Monday due to the Easter holidays.

But sunny weather meant that the country’s solar plants produced a huge surge of energy.

To protect the grid, state-owned company ČEPS switched them off.

The shutdown is proof of the country’s inadequate power storage system, said Jan Krčmář, executive director of the Czech Solar Association.

“What we have been saying for a long time has been proven. The Czech Republic is not ready for the renewable boom because there is a complete lack of storage capacity,” he told Czech news organisation Seznam Zprávy.

So why did the company have to switch off the power - and can they stop it happening in future?

An old proverb warns that it’s possible to “have too much of a good thing.”When storage facilities are inadequate, this can be true of energy.

During sunny weather, solar panels can often produce more energy than the grid - the transmission network through which electricity is moved - can use.

If this energy can’t be stored anywhere, it causes instability in the grid, damaging electrical equipment. In extreme situations, these voltage fluctuations can lead to blackouts.

To prevent potential damage on Monday, ČEPS switched off power plants with a total capacity of about 400 MW, or about a sixth of the country’s total solar energy capacity.

“CEPS decided to activate the curtailment plan after exhausting the normally available operational measures to control the electricity system,” CEPS spokeswoman Hana Klímová said.

Usually, the country transmits excess energy to neighbouring countries - but this wasn’t possible on Monday.

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