The AgNes proceedings are entering their decisive phase. On 6 August 2026, the Bundesnetzagentur (“BNetzA”) published the complete draft determination on the general electricity grid fee system (“AgNes”) and opened it for consultation (198 pages). Comments may be submitted until 18 September 2026. The determination is to be adopted within the 2026 calendar year. For electricity storage facilities, the draft confirms the change of course on the protection of legitimate expectations already signalled in the interim status report, and it eases the requirements for the final investment decision at one decisive point. The requirement of a binding grid connection commitment has been dropped, so that projects going through the transmission system operators’ maturity-based allocation procedure can still claim protection of legitimate expectations.
From Orientation Paper to Draft Decision
The Electricity Grid Fee Ordinance (“StromNEV”) will expire at the end of 31 December 2028. Following a discussion paper, several orientation papers and the presentation of the interim status on 27 May 2026, the Grand Ruling Chamber for Energy has now, for the first time, presented a fully drafted decision with operative provisions and reasoning (draft determination, file no. GBK-25-01-1#3). It takes the form of a framework determination. The new system is to apply from 1 January 2029. Fees other than those governed by this determination and by further determinations under section 21 (3) EnWG will then no longer be permissible. According to the reasoning of the draft, the determination is scheduled to be published on 1 January 2027.
Consumption Fees: Basic Model and Booked Capacity
For low-voltage withdrawal points with an annual offtake of up to 100,000 kilowatt hours, the draft provides for a basic model consisting of a standing charge and a volumetric price. Withdrawal points of prosumers are to pay a surcharge of between 70 and 90 per cent of the standing charge. Consumer protection associations have criticised the design of this rule because of its – in their view objectively unjustified – effects on standing charges in urban areas. For larger withdrawal points and for those above the low-voltage level, the BNetzA opts for a booked capacity model: the final consumer books a capacity each year, on which a capacity price is levied. In addition, there are two volumetric prices (AP1 and AP2) – a lower AP1 for volumes within the booked capacity and an AP2 of between 200 and 350 per cent of AP1 where that capacity is exceeded.
Capacity-Based Feed-In Charge for Generation Facilities
Operators of generation facilities in operation with an installed gross capacity of more than 30 kW are to pay a feed-in charge for the first time. For this purpose, the transmission system operators are to determine a nationally uniform capacity-based charge each calendar year and publish it by 15 October for the following year. The cost base comprises a basic component of EUR 0.50/MWh of the annual volume fed in, plus one half each of the transmission system operators’ balancing energy and loss energy costs. These costs are allocated across the contractually agreed feed-in capacity of the facilities liable to pay. Billing is handled by the respective connecting grid operator.
Storage Facilities and Electrolysers: Capacity Fee Instead of Double Burden
Operators of grid-coupled electricity storage facilities are to pay an annual capacity fee on their contractually agreed grid connection capacity, the level of which corresponds to the feed-in charge for generation facilities. Consumption-based volumetric prices on volumes that a storage facility draws from the grid and feeds back in are not to apply, provided such volumes can be separated by metering. The line announced in the interim status report therefore remains in place: no double burden on storage facilities for offtake and feed-in. Electrolysers producing green or low-carbon hydrogen are to pay a special grid fee consisting of a pure capacity price.
Dynamic Grid Fees to Follow Separately
The design of fees with an incentive function, in particular dynamic grid fees, remains reserved for separate determinations. The draft does, however, already set the framework. Dynamic grid fees are to be billed to storage facility operators by 1 January 2033 at the latest, but not before 1 January 2030, and to operators of generation facilities by 1 January 2035 at the latest, but not before 1 January 2032. Offshore wind installations are exempt. The obligation is subject to the condition precedent that the Ruling Chamber specifies the design at least two years before the start of the arrangement. For final consumers, the BNetzA refrains from dynamic grid fees for the time being.
Protection of Legitimate Expectations: Change of Course Confirmed – FID Without Grid Connection Commitment
The draft continues the approach to legitimate expectations to which the BNetzA returned in the interim status report in May. The exemption for electricity storage facilities under section 118 (6) sentence 1 EnWG as amended on 29 March 2026 (Federal Law Gazette 2026 I no. 84) is to continue to apply to all facilities for which a final investment decision (“FID”) was taken before the determination is published. The same applies to electrolysers. Existing generation facilities, as well as generation facilities with an FID taken before publication and commissioning by 4 August 2029, are to become liable for the feed-in charge only after 20 years have elapsed from commissioning.
The definition of the FID in operative provision 2 no. 1 deserves positive mention: it is sufficient that binding orders have been placed for components covering at least half of the investment volume (acquisition and production costs for facility components) and that withdrawal from those contracts is not possible without substantial financial loss (according to the reasoning, at least where the threatened loss amounts to 25 per cent or more of the investment volume). The additional requirement of a binding grid connection commitment, still announced at the interim status stage, no longer appears in the draft. This removes a considerable bottleneck, particularly for battery storage projects at transmission grid level, which under the new maturity-based procedure cannot expect binding commitments before early 2027.
The cut-off date remains problematic: anyone taking the FID only after the determination has been published (scheduled for 1 January 2027) is to become liable for fees from 1 January 2029 – even where the facility would still meet the statutory commissioning deadline of 4 August 2029 under section 118 (6) sentence 1 EnWG. In addition, operators must demonstrate the FID to the competent grid operator in an appropriate manner by 31 March 2027. For dynamic grid fees, the draft continues to grant storage facilities no grandfathering.
Transitional Arrangement for Individual Industrial Grid Fees
Individual grid fee agreements under section 19 (2) sentence 1 StromNEV are to remain available until 31 December 2031 subject to certain conditions – including average annual offtake of more than 10 gigawatt hours; pumped storage power plants are excluded. The baseload privilege under section 19 (2) sentences 2 to 4 StromNEV is likewise to remain applicable on a transitional basis until the end of 2031.
Outlook
With the draft determination, the full legal text of the future grid fee system is on the table for the first time. Comments may be submitted to the Ruling Chamber until 18 September 2026 (date of receipt). For developers of storage facilities, generation facilities and electrolysers, what now matters is meeting the FID requirements before the scheduled publication of the determination and documenting them carefully. The evidence deadline of 31 March 2027 must also be kept in mind. Whether the Ruling Chamber will maintain the 25 per cent threshold for substantial financial loss and the strict cut-off date approach will become apparent once the consultation responses have been evaluated.
(07 August 2026)