Federal cabinet adopts offshore liability regime and introduction of offshore grid development plan

At its cabinet meeting today, the German government adopted the draft for the Third Act Revising the Legislation Governing the Energy Sector. The new legislation aims to speed up the expansion of offshore wind farms. The major focus is on a system change towards a consistent and efficient offshore grid expansion by introducing a binding offshore grid development plan. This will improve coordination of grid connections and offshore wind farms. In addition, a compensation regulation for the construction and operation of grid connections to offshore wind farms will be introduced.

The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr Philipp Rösler said: "Today’s decision by the German government is a great success for the transformation of our energy system. We have overcome a major obstacle in speeding up the construction of offshore wind farms and connecting them to the grid. This will not only benefit businesses that want to invest in the future oriented industry of offshore wind energy. It will also benefit consumers who can now expect "clean" electricity generated by offshore wind farms to finally reach their homes. The transformation of our energy system is a once-in-a-lifetime project which demands efforts to be undertaken by all of us and which will not be possible for free. The new legislation provides for fair burden sharing. Costs for the consumers will be capped and the share of costs to be borne by the transmission system operators will be increased. My goal is to ensure affordable electricity for all - both for consumers and industry. However, this will require a fundamental revision of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Promoting the use of renewable energy sources needs to become more efficient and market-oriented as a matter of urgency."

Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier commented: "Today’s decision by the Federal government on the new liability regime removes a major obstacle on our way to expanding the use of offshore wind energy. The next step will be to ensure that electricity generated offshore finds its way to the major centres of energy consumption. For that we need to swiftly establish clear conditions with regard to further grid expansion. Green electricity has gained so much importance that grid expansion and the increased use of renewable energy sources in general must be harmonised more closely. Therefore we have to consider how to better organise the promotion of renewables without abandoning well proven elements like priority feed-in too hastily. We have to proceed thoroughly in this because we need a solution viable for several years which does not impede further increases in green electricity generation and instead steers these increases in a rational direction, and which meets with a broad consensus in our society. This takes time, you cannot force it. But we will deal with it.”

The new legislation provides for cost control and transparency in the course of expanding offshore wind energy, as any incidents and mitigation measures will be documented and published on the internet. Costs and the resulting surcharge will also be made transparent. In addition, the new stipulations shall be reviewed in three years’ time and adjusted if necessary. The draft act is planned to enter into force before the end of this year.