Other divisions · Infrastructure
The four power grids
The 50Hertz control area is the former GDR plus Berlin and Hamburg. In all 75 eastern districts, in Berlin and in Hamburg, and in no other district, most power units are connected to 50Hertz's grid. The rest of Germany is split between Amprion, TenneT and TransnetBW, along lines that cut through Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50Hertz Control area (Regelzone) of 50Hertz | 77 | 17.9 m | 21.5% | 109,714 km² |
| Amprion Control area (Regelzone) of Amprion | 120 | 27.3 m | 32.7% | 71,033 km² |
| TenneT Control area (Regelzone) of TenneT | 160 | 27.4 m | 32.8% | 141,629 km² |
| TransnetBW Control area (Regelzone) of TransnetBW | 44 | 10.9 m | 13% | 35,213 km² |
Germany's high-voltage grid is run by four transmission system operators, each with its own control area. By district, 50Hertz's area holds 17.9 million people (21.5%; 50Hertz itself gives 18 million), Amprion's 27.3 million, TenneT's 27.4 million and TransnetBW's 10.9 million.
The 50Hertz boundary follows the inner-German border with no exceptions at district level, and only 0.3% of the units in its districts are registered to another operator. The one western addition is Hamburg (99.9% of its units).
In the West the lines ignore state borders. TenneT runs the north (Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and 42 of Lower Saxony's 45 districts) and most of Bavaria (80 of 96 districts), plus 15 districts in Hesse and 6 in eastern Westphalia (Bielefeld, Herford, Höxter, Lippe, Minden-Lübbecke and Paderborn). Amprion runs the rest of North Rhine-Westphalia, all of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, 12 districts in Hesse, Osnabrück, Grafschaft Bentheim and Osnabrück district in Lower Saxony and 15 in western Bavaria. TransnetBW covers Baden-Württemberg except Rems-Murr-Kreis, plus Lindau (Bodensee) in Bavaria.
21 districts are split, with less than 90% of their units in one control area. The closest calls are Donau-Ries (Amprion 49%, TransnetBW 49%), Emsland (Amprion 49%, TenneT 51%) and Rems-Murr-Kreis (Amprion 53%, TransnetBW 47%).
Does the line still show?
Today's figures on each side, as population-weighted averages of the district values (our calculation from the live themes on this site).
| Indicator | 50Hertz | Amprion | TenneT | TransnetBW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 29.1% | 17.6% | 18.1% | 19.7% |
| Green vote 2025 | 9.4% | 11.9% | 12.5% | 13.8% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 7.8% | 6.9% | 5.4% | 4.6% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 3,864 | 4,210 | 4,186 | 4,536 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 12.3% | 13.2% | 13.4% | 13.8% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 54.8% | 33.2% | 36.0% | 32.6% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 13.8% | 18.3% | 16.4% | 19.5% |
How we drew the line
There are no official geodata of the control areas, so we used the Bundesnetzagentur's Marktstammdatenregister (full export of 7 November 2026). Grid operators record for each of the 6,028,979 grid connection points the control area it belongs to. We linked every power unit in operation (solar, onshore wind, storage, biomass, hydro, combustion and others; 8,139,966 units with a known control area) to its grid connection point via its location number, and counted units per district by the municipality key of the site. Each district is assigned to the control area with the most units; the tooltip shows that share. Most units are rooftop solar systems and home batteries, so the count follows where people live. Offshore wind farms are left out.
- 1,366,194 units in operation (14.4%) have no grid connection point with a control area in the register and are not counted.
- The control area is entered by the grid operator. In the districts assigned to each operator, between 0.3% and 3.5% of units are registered to another one: partly real (districts on a boundary), partly probably entry errors.
- 21 districts lie on a boundary between control areas (under 90% of units in one). A district's colour shows only the majority.
- Hanau became a separate district on 1 January 2026; in the register its units still carry Main-Kinzig-Kreis municipality keys, so it shows the Main-Kinzig figures.