Operators of customer facilities, take note: With its judgment of November 28, 2024, the ECJ has declared the legal concept of so-called customer facilities under Section 3 No. 24a of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG) to be incompatible with Union law, as it is not compliant with the Electricity Market Directive (EU) 2019/944.

This has significant consequences for decentralized energy supply systems, which previously enjoyed regulatory privileges as customer facilities. Operators of such systems must now expect to be classified as regulated distribution system operators and to fulfill corresponding obligations such as licensing, unbundling, and grid fee billing. Subsidy claims under the Combined Heat and Power Act (KWKG) and the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), as well as tenant electricity models, are also affected. While new legislation from the German legislator is still pending, system operators must react now and review their structures. In the future, 'light-touch regulation' models or external service providers could offer support.

Dr. Wolfgang Krafczyk and Moana Wittich explore how this decision came about and its specific consequences in their article “Impact of the Incompatibility of So-Called Customer Facilities under the EnWG with Union Law on Decentralized Energy Supply”.

Now available in the current issue of the Journal for New Energy Law (ZNER).

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