"Milestone" of the three-year transitional provision has been reached and is welcomed

The alliance of associations welcomes the interim measure created at the initiative of the German Bundestag, which, through Section 118(7) of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG), provides temporary planning certainty for operators of existing customer-owned facilities until December 31, 2028. However, there is currently no corresponding regulation for new customer-owned installations. As a result, new decentralized energy projects are frequently halted or must undergo time-consuming case-by-case reviews with grid operators.

The brief “breathing space” that has fortunately been created by the transitional solution for existing customer-owned installations must not, however, lead to a letup in legislative efforts to establish a permanently legally certain and EU-compliant regulation for existing and newly planned customer-owned installations. In our view, maintaining the customer-owned system regulation—currently set forth in Section 3, Nos. 65 and 66 of the Energy Act (EnWG)—is the best solution at this time for all existing and new customer-owned system configurations. To achieve this, the Internal Electricity Market Directive would need to be amended. Against this backdrop, we expressly welcome the current efforts by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy to develop a solution at the European level.

Alliance of Associations: Prioritize and Bring About a European Solution

As part of the Alliance of Associations, we have asked the German federal government to continue working consistently toward a corresponding amendment to the Internal Electricity Market Directive and to declare the issue of “customer-owned installations” a political priority—both nationally and at the European level. Among other things, we encourage prompt discussions—particularly to coordinate technical and strategic approaches.

As a broad industry alliance with expertise, an understanding of the concrete challenges faced by companies, and proposed solutions, the Alliance of Associations is happy to offer advice to the German Federal Government, the German Bundestag, and at the European level.

BDI Position Paper Published: Further Legal Adjustments Are Absolutely Necessary

In December 2025, the BDI published a position paper on customer-owned power plants. In the paper, we also recommended continuing to pursue, in addition to the now-established “phased solution,” a solution at the European level by amending the Internal Electricity Market Directive (EU) 2019/944 (EltBRL). Consequently, a clear exception, secured under EU law, must be established at the national legislative level to ensure, in a legally certain and permanent manner, the continuation of current practices and the importance of customer-owned installations for industry, commerce, the real estate sector, and other sectors.

It is important to find a permanent solution under EU law to preserve customer-owned installations. In the long term, this should also be extended to companies from other Member States of the European Union that have comparable configurations of so-called “customer-owned installations.” All Member States of the European Union have an interest in being exempted from network regulation or, looking ahead, in not falling under network regulation.

The BDI, its member associations, and their member companies had already, in the BDI position paper of December 2025, once again expressly offered further support to decision-makers at the national and European levels to find a legally certain and sustainable solution. We intend to continue doing so—both as the BDI and within the framework of the Alliance of Associations.