On February 25th, the law to prevent temporary generation surpluses came into effect, including the introduction of Flexible Connection Agreements (FCA) according to § 17 Abs. 2 EnWG and § 8a EEG.
The legal framework is broad, and the degrees of freedom in design are significant.
Question: What is the industry making of this new instrument? Where do we currently stand?

A look at practice shows that FCA concepts are still in their early stages, but after just six months, the first pioneering projects are already underway:

• LEW and Bayernwerk initiated the concept of “grid-neutral battery storage” even before the EnWG amendment, allowing as many battery storage systems as possible to be connected to the grid without exacerbating existing grid bottlenecks.
• N-Ergie enables generation plants to obtain a closer grid connection point before the completion of grid expansion measures if the generation plant refrains from feeding in during congestion times.
• Wesernetz announced a model this summer that offers large consumers a flexible grid connection for the duration of capacity bottlenecks.

This shows:

FCA is a suitable tool to economically optimize the increasingly scarce resource of grid capacity through flexibility.

It offers win-win solutions for grid operators and plant operators in various applications. Grid operators are currently developing FCA concepts on their own initiative, not because they are forced by legal deadlines, but because flexibility in connection capacity is a technically sensible response to ongoing capacity bottlenecks.

Now the question remains: What other applications will follow, and how will the regulatory framework develop further?

We are pleased to have been involved in all three of the above-mentioned initiatives and will continue to support grid operators and plant operators in the design and implementation of FCA solutions.

Please contact our representatives if you are interested: Kevin Münch, Kilian Bienert, Dr. Henrik Schwaeppe, Alexander Schrief, Dr. Henning Schuster.

Want to learn more about FCA? We describe FCA concepts for various applications at the E-Bridge Academy! https://academy.e-bridge.de/seminare/