Suddenly, things moved quickly: on 12. November 2025 the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy in its resolution on the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) amendment adopted a proposal by the government factions introducing a series of modifications. On the evening of 13. November 2025 the Bundestag adopted the modified amendments to the EnWG. The changes introduced during the committee procedure bring significant improvements to the regulatory framework, particularly for energy storages. In addition to a privileged status for BESS projects in outdoor areas under federal building law, adjustments to network fee exemptions create the conditions for a faster market integration of energy storages and bidirectional charging points.
Previous limitations regarding Network Fee Privileges for Energy Storages
For a long time, the industry has been criticising that the charging of network fees on the electricity drawn by energy storages, which is fed back into the grid after intermediate storage, constitutes an inappropriate burden and hampers the development of the sector. In recognition of this fact and to better integrate fluctuating energy supply into the power grid, the legislator has exempted energy storages from network fees since 2009.
However, the previous regulation in § 118 para. 6 EnWG excluded certain forms of energy storages from this privilege. In particular, the privilege applied solely to stationary systems. As a result, battery-powered vehicles, which can perform the same functions as stationary systems via charging points, were excluded.
It was also disputed whether only stand-alone energy storages with full grid-integration should benefit from the fee exemption under § 118 para. 6 EnWG. This would have excluded such energy storages which partially use the electricity drawn from the grid for local consumption facilities. Grid operators also questioned the applicability of § 118 para. 6 EnWG in cases of large co-location projects with shared grid-connection of generation facilities and energy storages via the same busbar.
Network Fee Privilege Expansions through the EnWG Amendment
These restrictions are removed by § 118 para. 6 EnWG in its new version.
The declared aim of the legislative amendment is to allow bidirectionally used charging points for electric vehicles to benefit from the network fee exemption. This is achieved by referring to the provisions of § 21 Energy Financing Act (EnFG), which already provide for equal exemption of charging points for electric vehicles and energy storages from certain levies.
The legislator also clarifies that energy storages, which do not operate with full grid-integration, may also benefit from the network fee privilege. The network fee exemption now applies “insofar as” the electricity drawn from the grid is fed back into the grid. Therefore, mixed operation profiles, i.e., partial refeeding and partial consumption behind the grid connection point, benefit proportionally from the network fee privilege. This also settles the case of co-location projects.
Notification Obligations and Delimitation Issues
Thus, network fee privileges may only apply for parts of the energy drawn from the grid. Consequently, it is obvious that a delimitation of the privileged and non-privileged quantities is required.
In this respect, the reference to § 21 EnFG clarifies that a privilege can only be claimed after fulfilling notification obligations to the grid operator. These include information on the privileged electricity quantities. The network fee exemption does not automatically apply but requires actions by the privilege holder.
For the delimitation of the relevant quantities, established solutions are available through the reference to § 21 EnFG.
In principle, the quantities which are simultaneously drawn from the grid and consumed in the storage/fed into the grid and produced in the storage must be determined in a manner compliant with measurement and calibration laws. The necessary metrological equipment can make such delimitations costly and complex. This can have prohibitive effects, especially in prosumer configurations where generation facilities, consumption facilities, and energy storages are operated on a relatively small scale behind a grid connection point.
However, according to § 21 para. 4 sentence 3 no. 3, sentence 4 no. 3 EnFG, a measurement and calibration law-compliant delimitation for each 15-minute interval of grid withdrawal/storage consumption and grid feed-in/storage generation can be omitted if it is “otherwise” ensured that the requirement of simultaneity is met.
Through this wording, the law refers to different methods developed by the BNetzA and the legislator for delimiting electricity quantities. These include the option to primarily attribute electricity drawn from the grid to a simultaneous storage consumption (so called gewillkürte Vorrangregelung). When other generation facilities exist behind the grid connection point, making it physically impossible to ensure that the stored electricity actually stems from the grid, this option can be a viable way forward. Depending on the grid connection configuration, other delimitation options can also lead to economically and technically satisfactory solutions.
(26 November 2025)