Background

New power generation facilities are often constructed without considering the existing grid capacities. In cases where the existing infrastructure is not factored into economic considerations, system costs escalate. The effort to regulate or ramp up feed-in performance to stabilise the power grid when overloading threatens, along with holding additional reserve capacities and oversized grid expansion, directly increases grid charges: According to forecasts by the Federal Network Agency, grid charges will rise from the current €37 billion to €79 billion per year by 2045. For companies, this would mean an increase in grid charges of 60% to 130%.

The Grid Connection Package aims to address this issue. It includes the designation of capacity-limited grid areas, prioritisation procedures for grid connections, digitalisation of application procedures, and a reservation system for grid capacities. In many places, connection capacities are already exhausted until the 2030s – businesses must postpone or abandon electrification projects entirely.

Like the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, the DIHK sees no systematic incentives in the current electricity market and RE funding design to realise plant projects where renewable electricity can be optimally utilised. However, the draft proposal requires adjustments. In particular, prioritisation criteria for grid connections must not be designed as optional guidelines, and the necessary steering effect of the law must not be lost.

The DIHK’s Demands at a Glance

• Renewable energy should be expanded specifically where grid capacities exist; in regions without sufficient capacity, state support for new generating capacities should cease altogether.
• Binding prioritisation criteria for grid connections should apply nationwide. Mandatory criteria should include localisation, verified land ownership, and financing proof.
• Independent, binding, and nationwide criteria for distribution system operators should be established – with well-defined allowances for regional specificities.
• Prioritising individual sectors or generation types when allocating grid connection capacities for political reasons should be explicitly excluded in the law.
• The planned release of contractually agreed grid connection capacities after three years of non-use should be removed from the draft law.
• Binding decision deadlines for grid connection requests should be included in the Energy Industry Act – with consequences for incentive regulation in case of deadline violations, such as through a bonus-malus system.
• Reservation fees should be introduced nationwide but should be designed in a way that does not endanger serious projects or place additional burdens on companies’ electrification strategies.
• Available grid connection capacities should be published on a central, nationwide map – rather than decentralised and fragmented at the distribution network level.
• Construction cost contributions (BKZ) for all grid users are appropriate. Regionally differentiated and dynamic grid tariffs should be brought to the fore as central control instruments in the Federal Network Agency’s AgNes process, enhancing and complementing the guiding effect of the BKZ.

Download

The DIHK’s statement as of 27 July 2026 on the draft proposal regarding the Grid Connection Package, focusing on the "Draft law to amend energy industry law to synchronise plant expansion with grid expansion and improve the grid connection process," is available here (only in German):