Grid Connection for PV: Why Capacity Decides Your Project

A commercial roof with space for 750 kWp is worthless if the grid connection point only accepts 300 kW. In commercial PV projects, the grid connection is the most common limiting factor and the longest external path in the schedule. Whoever clarifies it last is planning backwards.

Your Legal Entitlement: § 8 EEG

The EEG gives plant operators a statutory entitlement: grid operators must connect renewable energy plants to their grid without delay and with priority (§ 8 para. 1 EEG). The connection is made at the grid connection point that is technically suitable and most economically favorable overall; that can be the existing building connection, but also a more distant point in the medium-voltage grid.

This entitlement does not include a right to the desired capacity at the desired point: if the existing capacity is insufficient, the grid operator must expand the grid (§ 12 EEG, obligation to expand capacity), but expansion takes time, and certain additional costs can end up with the connection customer.

The Process: From Request to Confirmation

1. Submit the Netzanschlussbegehren (formal grid connection request). An informal or form-based inquiry to the distribution grid operator, stating the site, planned capacity and connection data. Free of charge, non-binding, and the only way to obtain a reliable statement on available capacity.
2. Response from the grid operator. The operator names the grid connection point, the available capacity and, where necessary, the required grid reinforcement including a timeline. For small systems up to 30 kW, a simplification has applied since Solarpaket I: if the grid operator does not respond within one month, the connection at the existing building connection is deemed approved. Commercial projects are almost always above this threshold and need an active confirmation.
3. Reservation and detailed planning. Based on the confirmation, the metering concept, current-transformer metering and, if needed, a transformer station are planned. Above certain system sizes, the grid operator requires a plant certificate; the documentation requirements were simplified with Solarpaket I but remain relevant for projects.
4. Commissioning and registration. Connection by the grid operator or an approved company, registration in the Marktstammdatenregister (Germany's core energy market data register), metering concept live.

Typical timeframe in practice: several weeks to months depending on region, voltage level and the grid operator's workload, and considerably longer if grid expansion is required.

Why the Request Belongs at the Start of the Project

Three reasons:

1. Capacity determines system size. Only with the grid operator's statement is it clear whether the roof potential can actually be fed into the grid. A profitability calculation without that statement runs on an assumption; the fundamentals are covered in the solar roof check.
2. The grid operator sets the pace. Structural assessment, procurement and installation can run in parallel; the grid operator's timelines cannot. Whoever submits the request early builds the waiting time into the project plan instead of adding it at the end.
3. Banks ask for it. Reliable financing, whether KfW 270 or a loan from your principal bank, requires the grid connection confirmation. Without it, the yield forecast is a hypothesis.

When Capacity Is Not Enough

If the grid connection point is insufficient, there are four levers before the project shrinks: curtailing active power output to the available capacity (costs little yield when self-consumption is high), a battery storage system to smooth feed-in, an alternative grid connection point at your own additional cost, or grid expansion under § 12 EEG with an appropriate time buffer. Which combination works is a matter of calculation, not belief.

NEXA submits the Netzanschlussbegehren (formal grid connection request) directly after the detailed analysis and manages the process, including the metering concept and the Marktstammdatenregister; installation runs in parallel so the waiting time does not add up. The starting point is the address: Start your analysis