Bun­desnet­za­gen­tur presents lat­est con­sid­er­a­tions on re­form of electricity net­work tar­iff sys­tem

Year of issue 2026
Date of issue 2026.05.27

The Bundesnetzagentur has today presented its latest preliminary considerations on the reform of the general electricity network tariff system (AgNes). These considerations will feed into the draft of a determination that is planned to be published and formally consulted on in the summer.

“The network tariff system is no longer fit for the energy supply of today and the future. Our aim with the new network tariff system is to strengthen cost efficiency and achieve a fair distribution of burdens. Our objectives are to quantify costs exactly where they arise, put a price on scarce capacity, avoid congestion management costs, support flexibility and reduce network expansion. We are giving more weight to the protection of legitimate expectations than in our earlier proposals,” said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur.

Rules based on user groups

Household customers and prosumers

The new system will not bring many changes for around 40 million household customers at the low-voltage level. Their network tariffs will continue to be made up of a standing charge in euros per year and an energy-based price in cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). However, there will be binding rules for the standing charges. For example, network operators will have to charge a standing charge for which a cap will be set. Consumers who produce electricity with their own generating installations (eg solar installations) and therefore consume less electricity from the network (“prosumers”) will pay a higher standing charge in future. In this way they will be contributing more again to financing the network. This is appropriate since they are able to rely on being supplied by the network at any time. There will be local differences in the additional costs for these consumers, which are expected to be below €100 a year. Plug-in solar installations will not pay this higher standing charge.

“Consumers producing their own electricity currently contribute less to financing the network although they rely on the network when the sun isn’t shining and their storage batteries are empty. This is why we want prosumers to contribute a little more to the costs. This is only fair. Otherwise only those consumers not generating their own electricity would have to bear the rising costs,” said Klaus Müller.

Large consumers

In the case of consumers with an annual consumption of more than 100,000 kWh, the current capacity price will be replaced by a capacity-based price in euros per kilowatt (kW) per year and a markup in cents per kWh when the ordered capacity is exceeded. There will still also be an energy-based price in cents per kWh for consumption up to the ordered capacity. With these arrangements, the Bundesnetzagentur is promoting flexibility for commercial and industrial consumers and removing economic restrictions for temporarily higher consumption when electricity prices are very low.

“We are enabling commercial and industrial consumers to be more flexible in their electricity consumption. This provides a good opportunity to respond more strongly to low electricity prices, which will benefit large consumers and the electricity system alike,” said Klaus Müller.

The AgNes framework determination will set out basic arrangements, including transitional provisions, for special tariffs for industry (permanent load and atypical network use pursuant to section 19(2) of the Electricity Network Tariffs Ordinance – StromNEV). The present arrangements for existing permanent load customers will generally be extended until 31 December 2031. The current discount structure for large consumers with atypical network use will be retained for a transitional period. Details of the future arrangements for industrial consumers are to be decided on at the beginning of 2027. This will allow account to be taken of the findings from the pilot projects, which run until the end of 2026.

Producers

The Bundesnetzagentur intends to involve generating installations in the financing of the network. These installations are currently exempt from the tariffs but in future they are to pay a limited annual capacity-based price to finance the network. The injection tariff is expected to be €4 to €7 per kW per year initially, however there will be exemptions for existing installations for a period of 20 years from the date they were first put into operation. A tariff of this size will have hardly any effect on the market price but can contribute up to €2 billion a year to the network costs over time.

Plug-in solar installations and prosumers will not be affected by these arrangements.

Operators of electricity storage facilities

Operators of electricity storage facilities (battery storage and pumped storage) will also contribute to the financing of the electricity network. They will pay a moderate capacity-based price with a level similar to the price that will be payable by producers. The Bundesnetzagentur’s aim with this price is to reflect the special function of storage facilities in the future electricity supply system as providers of flexibility. Storage facilities will not be expected to pay energy-based prices with a financing function.

Likewise, the Bundesnetzagentur will not be introducing the tariffs for all storage facilities as from 1 January 2029 as it had originally envisaged. Instead, existing storage facilities will not pay the tariffs until the special arrangements under section 118(6) of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG), if applicable, have expired.

“Storage facilities are essential for the energy system of the future and for greater security of supply. We still need a lot more of these facilities. Storage facilities respond flexibly to price signals and we want to prevent them from making network congestion even worse when they do so. We also want to involve storage facilities in the financing of the network. We are proposing that capacity-based tariffs should not be payable until the current special arrangements have expired. We are therefore introducing them for new storage facilities for which a final investment decision is made after the determination has come into force. This creates planning certainty for ongoing projects.”

The arrangements do not apply to home energy storage systems at the low-voltage-level. These systems will not have to pay a separate network tariff in future either.

Electrolysers

Electrolysers represent a user group for which European law allows special treatment because explicit objectives are set for them in the national energy and climate plans. The ruling chamber is making use of this and plans to also introduce a network tariff for electrolysers for green and low-carbon hydrogen with a level similar to the capacity-based tariffs for storage facilities and producers but not to introduce energy-based tariffs.

Dynamic network tariffs

The aim of dynamic tariffs is to create financial incentives for market players not to put more pressure on the network in difficult network situations. The Bundesnetzagentur is convinced that dynamic price signals can reduce the need for redispatching. The costs for redispatching in 2025 amounted approximately to as much as €3.06 billion (including the costs of contracting reserve power plants). We want to cut these overall costs.

Designing dynamic network tariffs requires a high level of analysis into the knock-on effects on the wholesale electricity market and on redispatching, redistribution effects among market players and practical feasibility. Any arrangements must trigger positive effects for the system as a whole and must be feasible in practice. It is planned to develop a specific design and examine its effects in 2027.

The Bundesnetzagentur is already outlining a time frame for introducing dynamic network tariffs. It envisages introducing dynamic network tariffs for storage facilities in 2030 at the earliest, but if possible by 2033. Storage facility operators can easily avoid dynamic tariffs by changing their behaviour and can even benefit from them as additional income. It is therefore planned for all storage facility operators to be subject to dynamic tariffs within the time frame outlined.

It is planned to introduce dynamic network tariffs for producers in 2032 at the earliest and if possible by 2035. An exception will apply to offshore wind plants.

Dynamic network tariffs for electrolysers are still conceivable – following their successful introduction for storage facilities – since these consumers have a high potential for flexibility and the electrolysers now being developed would benefit from dynamic network tariffs if a suitable location were chosen. At the same time, there should be clarity about the legal adjustments at European level before introducing the tariffs.

With respect to flexibility potential at the low-voltage level, work is to continue swiftly and steadily on exploring the potential in further developing the time-variable network tariff for home storage system operators and electric vehicles. One conceivable possibility is an opt-in for consumers at the low-voltage level, which should be introduced as soon as technically possible.

It is intended to start working on rules for construction cost contributions and guidelines for flexible connection agreements in 2027.

Cost allocation among network operators

New rules will also be introduced for the allocation of costs among network operators. Local network operators’ network tariffs include costs from upstream networks (“upstream network tariffs”). At present, the level of the tariffs is based on the amount of electricity withdrawn from higher network levels.

This rule no longer makes sense because the increasing proportion of distributed generation distorts the cost allocation. Customers in networks with a small proportion of renewable generation bear a higher proportion of the system costs than customers in networks that withdraw less electricity from upstream networks because of a higher proportion of distributed generation, even though both groups of networks may need to obtain all their electricity from the upstream network and the upstream network fulfils key technical functions for the downstream network level.

The Bundesnetzagentur intends to distribute the costs from upstream networks more fairly. In future, upstream network costs are to be based on the amount of electricity consumed by the connected final consumers.

The arrangements will not affect the determination on distributing the additional costs incurred in networks as a result of the integration of renewable energy generating installations. This relief for regions with a particularly high level of growth in renewable energy will remain.

Background to the new arrangements

The majority of the rules currently applicable to calculating tariffs for network use are from the StromNEV, which was issued in 2005. New rules are needed for the allocation of the costs of network use in light of the huge changes in the energy system. With network and congestion management costs rising, some groups of network users are bearing an increasingly larger and others an increasingly smaller proportion of the costs. At the same time, electricity feed-in is becoming increasingly volatile and network connection capacity is becoming scarce.

The new rules are necessary because of a judgment by the European Court of Justice. The current statutory provisions (from the StromNEV) will expire on 31 December 2028.

Network tariffs cover costs amounting to around €37 billion a year. They make up about 30% of a household’s electricity costs. The network tariff system regulates how the costs are allocated. The Bundesnetzagentur issued decisions on efficiency and savings last year in the NEST proceedings for incentive regulation. Redispatching and network expansion costs are also to be cut by creating the right incentives for network-oriented behaviour.

The Bundesnetzagentur is today presenting its latest preliminary conclusions following numerous expert dialogues and consultations on individual topics. The fundamental aspects as presented will feed into a draft determination in line with the current status of discussions. The proceedings and the opinion-forming process are therefore still ongoing.

A formal consultation process for the complete draft determination is expected to start in summer 2026 and conclude with the issue of the framework determination at the end of 2026. More detailed determinations building on this framework determination will follow in 2027.

More information is available (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/1104078.