Federal Network Agency stuns by approving refusal of grid connection for battery storage

Last week, the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) published its decision in a “special abuse proceeding by BESS Germany 1 GmbH against Edis Netz GmbH pursuant to Section 31 of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG) regarding the rejection of a grid connection application for a battery storage system.” 

The 6th Decision Chamber of the Federal Network Agency rejected the application from the storage investor, BESS Germany 1 GmbH.

The storage investor had requested a review of the conduct of the distribution network operator Eon Edis in the case of a grid connection request for a large battery electricity storage system (BESS). The Eon subsidiary had rejected this request, even with a reduced capacity. The Federal Network Agency considered the rejection of the storage system, citing the risk of supply shortages, to be sufficient and plausible.

Shock

Lawyers have reacted with widespread incomprehension to the Federal Network Agency’s publication. Christian Ertel, a lawyer at Taylor Wissing, described the decision as “hardly comprehensible.”

“Where will we end up if legislators can decide how the law was previously to be interpreted with regard to its scope of application by simply adding a small clause to the preamble?” he wrote on LinkedIn. This refers to the fact that the Federal Network Agency claims the German Grid Connection Ordinance (KraftNAV) was not applicable to large battery storage systems even before the amendment at the end of 2025. The first grid connection request for the project was submitted at the end of 2024.

Furthermore, the decision chamber also found no violation of the regulations in Section 17 of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG). The refusal of grid connection was therefore deemed sufficiently justified. The grid operator argued that there was a risk of supply bottlenecks in the grid area. Even with future grid expansion, the operator maintained that grid connection for the planned BESS was not feasible. The Federal Network Agency also considered it acceptable that the grid operator had not offered a flexible grid connection agreement in this case. It referred to the law, which states that such flexible grid connection agreements may be offered, but are not mandatory.

“The views on the required level of justification are also appalling and ultimately grant network operators carte blanche to reject connection requests with platitudes and unverifiable claims,” Ertel wrote on LinkedIn regarding this aspect.

Attorney Heiko Lange of Aecoute Rechtsanwälte, who represents the plant operator in the case and shared the decision on LinkedIn, added that the operator could now pursue their case with an appeal to the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. He did not specify whether or not this will happen.

From pv magazine Germany.