Germany’s Federal Network Agency has started a consultation on the final draft determination to reform the system of electricity network charges after a preliminary plan was presented in May.

The final determination is expected to be issued at the end of 2026 and replace the Electricity Network Tariffs Ordinance (StromNEV) from 2029, the agency said.

As revealed in the preliminary draft, the exemption from grid tariffs for existing and well-advanced planned storage facilities and electrolysers will be continued.

“This strengthens investor confidence for investments that have already been initiated,” Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of the executive management board of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), commented.

BDEW, however, criticised the planned introduction of feed-in tariffs for electricity generators. The association says bottlenecks can be reduced with intelligent, grid-oriented location control for generation facilities. Therefore, it suggests that regionally differentiated construction cost contributions offer a more appropriate and practical approach than feed-in tariffs.

BDEW also criticised the introduction of dynamic grid tariffs. These may appear attractive in theory, but in practice they create significant new complexity. They also become an unpredictable risk variable in the project financing of electricity generation facilities, the association said.

At the same time, the German Energy Storage Systems Association (BVES) appreciated that the Federal Network Agency has taken up many arguments raised during discussions with the industry. The association, however, sees a need for improvements regarding investor confidence protection for existing storage projects.

The network agency gave up its original intention to remove the exemption from grid usage fees for storage systems commissioned before August 4, 2029. To continue to benefit from the exception, however, projects should also have final investment decisions (FID) before the new regulation enters into force. Another condition is that binding orders for components worth at least 50% of the project's total investment must have been placed.

According to BVES, the additional requirements, in particular the orders requirement, go beyond the previous legal framework and make the implementation of many projects more difficult.

The association also opposed a planned prosumer surcharge for self-consumers connected at the low-voltage level. Prosumers help increase the flexibility of the energy system and additional burdens should not slow down this development, the association said.

Source:FuelCellsWorks