German economy minister set on reforms realigning renewable expansion with grids

German’s economy minister Katherina Reiche is pushing for renewables to “shoulder part of the responsibility” of the energy transition, defending a contested leaked draft law from her ministry that would deprioritise the connection of renewables to the power grid. In an interview with newspaper Handelsblatt, Reiche stressed that “nothing has been decided or finalised yet,” but that “grid operators should be given the option to prioritise network connection requests.”

The draft bill from the Christian Democrat-led (CDU) ministry sparked pushback from the renewables industry as well as from members of the CDU's coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the opposition. 

Under Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG), grid operators must prioritise connections requests from renewable energy projects and buy electricity that they generate, including sometimes paying operators to shut down renewable installations at times when the grid is operating at full capacity, a process known as curtailment. This provides would-be investors with planning security and financing for new renewable projects.

The leaked reform plans would change this in an upcoming overhaul of renewable energy legislation. In areas where more than three percent of the previous year’s electricity generation could not be fed into the grid due to bottlenecks, grid operators would only prioritise connecting renewable energy projects if the developer agrees to waive curtailment payments for up to ten years. The draft would also enable grid operators to partially charge renewable investors for the costs of grid expansion and modernisation. 

The economy ministry is working on measures “to better synchronise the expansion of renewables and grids,” as announced in the government’s energy transition “reality check” - an analysis of the country's shift to clean energy - last year.