As things stand, the ruling \u201con the adjustment and supplementation of prerequisites for the agreement of individual network charges for grid access by the Federal Network Agency\u201d from 2023 (BK4-22-089) will cease to have effect after 31 December 2025. Neither the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) nor the legislator has so far published any indication of a transitional provision. Consequently, there is currently no reliable protection of legitimate expectations for companies that have benefited from the ruling to date. Affected companies should urgently take this into account when planning their consumption behaviour for 2026 in order not to jeopardise their entitlement to an individual network charge.<\/p>\n
What does ruling BK4-22-089 regulate?<\/strong> Thus, the ruling prevents individual network charges under Section 19 (2) Sentences 2 to 4 StromNEV from lapsing due to certain consumption changes\u2014for example, voluntary load reductions, market-price-driven flexibility measures, or grid-induced deviations.<\/p>\n Integration of the new regulation into the procedure for establishing the General Network Charge System for Electricity (AgNes)<\/strong> What does this mean for industrial customers from 2026 onwards?<\/strong> Companies should therefore examine at an early stage whether the operating-hours requirements can be reliably met in 2026 without the application of the ruling. Particular attention should be paid to contractual arrangements with the connecting network operator.<\/p>\n (10 December 2025)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As things stand, the ruling \u201con the adjustment and supplementation of prerequisites for the agreement of individual network charges for grid access by the Federal Network Agency\u201d from 2023 (BK4-22-089) will cease to have effect after 31 December 2025. Neither the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) nor the legislator has so far published any indication of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,101,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-energy-and-climate-change","category-natural-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19778,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19774\/revisions\/19778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAccording to Section 19 (2) Sentences 2 to 4 of the German Electricity Network Charges Ordinance (StromNEV), energy-intensive end consumers with at least 7,000 operating hours and an annual consumption of more than 10 gigawatt hours are entitled to a reduced, individual network charge.
\nRuling BK4-22-089 stipulates that companies that voluntarily and in a grid-supporting manner change their load or consumption behaviour (e.g., by reducing load during peak periods or adjusting consumption in response to price fluctuations on the power exchange) do not<\/strong> lose their entitlement to an individual network charge under the StromNEV even if, as a result, the threshold of 7,000 operating hours is not reached.<\/p>\n
\nThe Federal Network Agency has now fully integrated the procedure for the future design of industrial network charges into the AgNes determination procedure (BGK-25-01-1#3). The goal is a fundamentally new charging system that more accurately reflects the actual costs of network operations and takes into account the behaviour of network users to the extent that it affects grid stability. The corresponding ruling will, however, not come into force before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
\nFor affected companies, this means that from 2026 onwards there is a risk that consumption flexibility will once again fully impact the operating-hours requirements of Section 19 (2) StromNEV. Without the continued applicability of the ruling, individual flexibility measures may result in falling below the operating-hours threshold required for an individual network charge.<\/p>\n