Renewable energy policy database and support

Plant operators are statutorily entitled against the grid operator to the connection of renewable energy plants to the grid (§ 8 par. 1 EEG 2017). The grid operator shall not make the conclusion of a contract a condition for the fulfilment of his obligation to connect plants to the grid (§ 7 par. 1 EEG 2017).

A plant operator is one who uses a plant or installation for the purpose of power generation from renewable energy sources. Whether or not he owns the plant is irrelevant (§ 3 no. 2 EEG 2017). The person obligated is the grid operator who is most closely located to the plant site and whose grid is technically suitable to receive electricity (§ 8 par. 1 EEG 2017). Where connecting the plant to a grid other than the most closely located one is technically and economically more favourable, another grid operator may be obliged to connect the plant (§ 8 par. 1 EEG 2017). Grid operators are entitled to assign a plant a different grid connection point. Likewise, a plant operator may choose another grid connection point (§ 8 par. 1 EEG 2017). A grid is deemed to be technically suitable even if the grid operator has to expand his grid at an economically reasonable expense to import electricity (§ 8 par. 4 EEG 2017). 

Plant operators are statutorily entitled against the grid operator to the physical acceptance and transmission of all electricity from renewable sources offered (§ 11 par. 1 EEG). The grid operator shall not make the conclusion of a contract a condition for fulfilling his obligation to purchase and transmit electricity (§ 7 par. 1 EEG).

Upon request of those interested in feeding in electricity, the grid operator is obliged to immediately optimise, boost and expand his grid in accordance with the best available technology in order to guarantee the purchase, transmission and distribution of electricity from renewable sources (§ 12 par. 1 sentence 1 EEG 2017). This obligation shall not only exist for grid operators whose grid the plants are immediately connected to, but also for upstream grids with a maximum voltage of 110 kV, provided that the expansion measures are necessary to guarantee the purchase, transmission and distribution of electricity (§ 12 par. 1 sentence 2 EEG 2017). Plant operators are entitled to the expansion of the grid only if it is economically reasonable (§ 12 par. 3 EEG 2017). Whether the expansion of the grid is economically reasonable in a given case will be determined by weighing the plant operator’s interests against the grid operator’s interests. The grid operator shall not make the conclusion of a contract a condition for the fulfilment of his obligation to expand the grid (§ 7 par. 1 EEG 2017).

• EEG 2017 (Renewable Energy Sources Act – general provisions on renewable energy)
• EnWG (Energy Industry Act – general provisions on the energy industry)
• KraftNAV (Ordinance on the Connection of Power Plants to the Grid)
• BBPlG (Law on the federal grid requirement plan)
• NABEG (Grid Development Acceleration Law)