The expansion of wind and solar energy is to progress significantly faster. This is the declared goal of the German government. However, there are already bottlenecks in the grid connection, as the increasing number of systems is encountering ever tighter grid capacities. The grids are apparently full. It is now also becoming apparent that the grids have not been expanded sufficiently in recent years.

In view of this situation, the disputes between those who operate the grids and those who want to be connected have intensified significantly. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) is now working on a solution: it wants to strengthen the rights of system operators with a new draft law.

This amendment to the EEG is initially intended to take account of the interest of plant operators in greater planning security. This concerns, for example, the provision of binding information or reservation commitments by the grid operator. This is intended to counteract a development in recent years that has repeatedly caused displeasure. Grid operators have attempted to avoid binding information and reservation commitments or to limit them to such a short period that they often expire due to the longer duration of authorisation procedures.

This is because under the previous law, there was no entitlement to a binding reservation commitment. In the absence of a standardised legal framework, the grid operators had developed their own reservation conditions for the implementation of such procedures, which differed greatly from grid operator to grid operator. The duration of reservation commitments was also not regulated, meaning that there was also considerable legal uncertainty here. In this way, the grid operators reacted to the bottlenecks in grid connection.

On 28 August 2024, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection published a draft bill on the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) and the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which provides for corresponding adjustments to the grid connection regulations. The aim is to increase the transparency of available grid connection capacities, create a uniform framework for capacity reservations and standardise timeframes in the processing of grid connection requests.

The new provision of Section 8e EEG (in the previous draft version, Section 8a EEG) is particularly noteworthy. This standard is intended to establish binding and standardised requirements throughout Germany for the reservation of grid connection capacities by the grid operator. The grid operator must carry out reservation procedures in a non-discriminatory, transparent and objective manner and by means of time-limited reservations. The duration of the reservation commitments may be between six months and two years, although a longer reservation period can be assumed for wind turbines in particular due to the time-intensive approval process. This is intended to give connection applicants more legal certainty with regard to the determined grid connection point.

If the new regulation comes into force, the rights of plant operators and the planning security for them will be significantly increased.