BERLIN (AP) — The German government said Wednesday it is considering taking a stake in Dutch grid operator TenneT, which has a large footprint in Germany.

Germany already has a minority stake in rival grid operator 50 Hertz, via the state-owned investment bank KfW, and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said there were talks with TenneT too.

“These talks aren't yet such that I'm allowed to comment further on them,” he told reporters in Berlin, but confirmed that he considers it “politically wise and necessary” for the state to support the creation of vital public infrastructure such as transmission networks.

TenneT operates electricity grids across a large swath of Germany, from the North Sea coast to Bavaria in the southeast. Those transmission lines are crucial for Germany's plans to completely shift its power production from fossil fuels to renewable energy by 2045 at the latest.

At present, some of the electricity generated by wind farms in the north of the country can't be dispatched to consumers in the south due to lack of transmission capacity.

TenneT's mother company, TenneT Holding, is owned by the Dutch state.