BSW-Solar calls for better grid access for photovoltaics and storage

The German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) is calling on the Bundestag to urgently create grid access for large-scale photovoltaic systems and storage systems – especially in combination. The Energy Industry Act (EnWG), introduced today in parliament, must be amended accordingly. Otherwise, grid access will increasingly become a brake on the energy transition, as industry representatives put it.

Overbuilding grid connections

Specifically, the industry association is demanding, among other things, the right to build over the grid connection. According to the BSW-Solar, around 90 percent of currently planned solar parks are being built in combination with a storage system – a so-called co-location. This, of course, nominally increases the combined output. However, the solar system and storage system usually feed in at different times. On the contrary: By building over the existing grid capacity, the existing grid capacity is used more efficiently and even relieves the strain on the grid.

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Information about available network connections

In addition, BSW-Solar is calling for greater transparency through the introduction of non-binding grid connection information. This would give project developers the opportunity to see where grid capacity is still available before submitting an application for grid connection and beginning to plan the system.

Reserve network connections

Furthermore, the possibility of binding grid capacity reservations should be created. However, these should take into account the actual progress of the project. This should prevent planners from reserving grid connections but then not planning the plant. This could prevent such a blockage of unused commitments. At the same time, it would create planning and investment security for all parties involved – including the grid operators.

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Commit to digitalization

The Solar Association also calls for mandatory digitalization of grid connection requests and the introduction of specific, binding deadlines for all parties involved in the grid connection process. Delays on the part of grid operators should be penalized.

Poor grades for many network operators

The background to this is a survey conducted by BSW-Solar among its member companies regarding their experiences with connecting solar systems to the grid. In this current survey, solar companies gave grid operators some disastrous ratings. Poor communication with many of the more than 800 grid operators and slow processing of grid connection requests are often cited. This could be remedied by mandatory digitalization and sanctions for delays by grid operators.

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Slow processing frustrates

Then the grid operators' thin staffing levels would no longer have such a slowing effect on the processing of grid connection applications. A lack of staff was frequently cited in the survey as a problem, which is why approval of grid connections sometimes takes several years. The slow processing is particularly frustrating from the perspective of solar project developers. This applies in particular to large-scale battery storage systems, which are urgently needed for better integration of renewable energies into the power grid and to relieve the strain on the grids. For example, 63 percent of respondents planning a large-scale battery storage system in combination with a solar system stated that they either received no response to their grid connection request, a rejection, or were informed that grid connection would not be possible until the end of 2028. For purely large-scale storage projects, 79 percent of the planners surveyed had this experience.

Poor communication becomes a brake

The planners rated communication with the grid operator accordingly poorly. 75 percent of them gave it a grade of 5 or 6. "The often poor communication from grid operators is increasingly hindering the energy transition," criticizes Carsten Körnig, Managing Director of BSW-Solar. "In the future, politicians must hold them more accountable for standardizing and digitizing their processes and adhering to binding deadlines," he summarizes the association's demands regarding communication.

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Transparency is lacking

But even in the planning of the systems, project developers and tradespeople repeatedly encounter enormous hurdles. They see the greatest obstacle in their collaboration with most grid operators as the lack of transparency regarding grid capacities, followed by failure to meet deadlines for information on the part of the grid operators and insufficient personnel resources at the grid operators. The result is lengthy delays. According to the industry association, it takes an average of just under four months from the submission of the grid connection request to the allocation of a grid connection point. In extreme cases, this can take several years. (see below)