Current developments in energy law

On November 13, 2024, the Federal Government adopted the draft bill submitted by the BMWK to amend energy industry law in the areas of end customer markets, grid expansion and grid regulation. These comprehensive changes are aimed at improving the integration of renewable energies, optimizing grid capacities and strengthening consumer protection.

Changes in the area of end customer markets

The draft law serves to implement EU regulations in the consumer sector. It provides for electricity suppliers that supply household customers to be obliged to develop and apply hedging strategies against significant price increases. This is intended to minimize the risk of price effects such as those seen during the energy crisis. It also promotes energy sharing, whereby consumers share energy and benefit from the low prices of renewable energies.

Grid expansion and grid regulation

The amendments to the Energy Industry Act also include measures to accelerate grid expansion. The Federal Requirements Plan Act and the planning regulations will be amended. Further projects will be included in the Federal Requirements Plan whose energy industry necessity and urgent need were determined by the Federal Network Agency as part of its review of the Electricity Grid Development Plan 2023-2037/2045. The Federal Network Agency's environmental report was taken into account in the decision. This is intended to ensure effective environmental precautions.

Smart meter and smart grid rollout

Another focus is on improving the cost-effectiveness of the smart meter rollout. In the Metering Point Operation Act, the pure smart meter is further developed through the integration of controllability, i.e. the corresponding control technology for smaller generation plants and controllable consumption facilities. This enables better use of existing flexibilities by producers, consumers and grid operators and contributes to the stability and controllability of the energy system.

Grid connection procedure

The grid connection procedure will be modernized. In particular, the draft law contains regulations to increase transparency regarding available grid connection capacities (such as the newly inserted Sections 17a and b EnWG), to create a uniform framework for reservations of grid connection capacity, for flexible grid connection agreements and for the standardization and digitalization of procedures in the grid connection process. The newly inserted Section 17c EnWG obliges electricity distribution grid operators to set up digital grid connection portals for the connection of generation plants, consumption facilities and storage facilities. The regulations are intended to speed up the grid connection process, particularly for systems that generate electricity from renewable energy sources and charging stations for electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Direct marketing and controllability of renewable energy systems

The thresholds for participation in direct marketing will be gradually reduced from 100 kilowatts to 25 kilowatts. The subsidy for negative prices will be abolished in order to remove the incentive to continue feeding into the grid despite negative prices. Increased controllability and digitalization of renewable energy systems should allow grid operators to adapt feed-in to consumption in a grid area and thus contribute to grid stability.

Conclusion

The planned changes to energy industry law are an important step towards modernizing and stabilizing the German energy system. They promote the integration of renewable energies, improve grid capacities and strengthen consumer protection. The implementation of these measures will help to keep the electricity supply secure and affordable and to achieve the climate targets.