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Glossary · Energy industry & energy transition

Behind-the-Meter

Behind-the-meter prosumer Self-Consumption storage customer installation electricity meter

Definition and delimitation

Behind-the-Meter, in German roughly "hinter dem Zähler", refers to installations, storage systems and consumption processes that, from the perspective of the public electricity grid, lie on the customer side of the grid connection and metering. This means installations within the building's internal wiring or within a customer installation (Kundenanlage). Their individual electricity flows are not recorded separately by the grid. At the grid connection point, the grid sees only the sum: at any given moment, electricity is either drawn or fed in. What happens behind it inside the building is largely balanced out internally.

A clarification on metering: in Germany, bidirectional meters generally record grid consumption and feed-in in separate registers. Only what is generated and consumed within the building at the same moment is thus offset. Annual netting in the manner of US-style "net metering", where fed-in and drawn kilowatt-hours are offset against each other over long periods, is not the rule here. It is therefore imprecise to speak generally of a "netted value" at the meter.

Typical Behind-the-Meter installations are rooftop PV systems, home storage systems, heat pumps, wallboxes, energy management systems and controllable household appliances. In commerce and industry, consumers, generators and storage within a plant network also belong here. Models such as tenant electricity (Mieterstrom) and charging infrastructure on company premises can also fall under the term if the relevant processes take place behind one or more metering points.

In a single-family home, the boundary is usually easy to identify. In multi-tenant buildings, commercial sites or industrial parks, it often is not. There, main meters, sub-meters and apartment meters can create different delimitations. Strictly speaking, the boundary to the public grid lies at the grid connection, for example at the house connection box. The meter usually sits shortly behind it and is operated by the metering point operator. Behind-the-Meter therefore first describes the position relative to the metering and billing boundary. The term says nothing about the ownership, size or classification under energy law of an installation.

Energy, power and timing effects

At the metering point, what is mainly measured is electrical energy in kilowatt-hours. For grid operation, however, power in kilowatts also matters, i.e. how much electricity is drawn or fed in at a given moment. A PV system can generate many kilowatt-hours over the year and still contribute nothing to covering load on a windless winter evening. A battery storage system can reduce grid consumption for a few hours. How strong its effect is depends on state of charge, charging and discharging power, control and price signal. For the grid, therefore, the annual quantity matters less than the time profile at the connection, i.e. the load profile.

Distinction from Front-of-the-Meter and prosumer

Front-of-the-Meter installations are connected directly on the grid side. They are metered in such a way that their feed-in and consumption are visible as a distinct market or grid effect. A large-scale battery storage system at a substation is a typical example. A home storage system that buffers solar power and smooths the household's grid consumption, by contrast, is Behind-the-Meter. Technically, both can use similar cells, but they are integrated institutionally in different ways.

Behind-the-Meter is also often conflated with the term prosumer. Prosumer describes a role: an actor consumes electricity and at the same time generates some. Behind-the-Meter, by contrast, describes the position of an installation in the grid. Whoever operates a PV system is a prosumer. The installation itself is Behind-the-Meter if it interacts with consumers and, where applicable, a storage system behind the household meter.

Economic incentives and cost allocation

Many rules converge at the meter. Grid charges, electricity supply, levies, taxes, metering charges, feed-in tariffs, balancing and control rights are tied to measured quantities and capacities. Electricity that is generated in the building and consumed immediately does not appear as grid consumption. Self-consumption therefore pays off when the avoided electricity purchase is more expensive than the remuneration for feed-in. Storage becomes more attractive when it can avoid expensive grid consumption, shave power peaks or exploit variable tariffs. The same installation can thus have very different effects depending on tariff, metering concept and grid rules.

Behind-the-Meter also affects the distribution of costs. If less consumption is measured as grid consumption, the individual connection user pays less energy-dependent grid charges and levies. However, the fixed costs of the grid remain, and the connection often still has to provide full capacity. These costs are then spread across other charge components or user groups. An efficient charging system must therefore distinguish: does an installation actually save grid capacity, does it reduce load peaks, or does it merely reduce the measured energy drawn? Pure energy-based prices reflect this difference only incompletely.

Two common misconceptions

First, Behind-the-Meter installations are often considered invisible to the grid and thus independent of it. The grid does not see every switching operation of a heat pump, but it does see the sum at the connection. If many households charge their electric cars at the same time, a significant load arises, even if each wallbox sits behind a private meter. If many home storage systems charge in response to the same price signal, a new load peak can likewise arise.

Second, self-consumption is often equated with relief for the system. Self-consumption can relieve grids if it brings generation and consumption together in time and place. But it can also be merely a billing quantity. A PV system that reduces consumption at midday does not automatically reduce the peak load in the evening. A storage system optimised only for maximum self-consumption can already be full at midday before the feed-in peak arrives. It then acts differently from a storage system that responds to grid congestion or prices. What matters is therefore less the annual self-consumption rate than the effect over time at the grid connection point.

Legal framework in Germany (as of November 2026)

For Behind-the-Meter consumers at low voltage, § 14a EnWG is particularly important. It allows the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) to establish nationwide uniform rules. Under these, grid operators and connection users agree on grid-oriented control of controllable consumption devices or entire controllable grid connections and receive reduced grid charges in return. The law names in particular heat pumps, non-publicly accessible charging points, cooling systems, electricity storage systems and night storage heaters. Economic incentives and agreements on connection capacity may take precedence over direct intervention in individual devices.

According to the Federal Network Agency's determination and grid operator practice, the obligation to participate applies to devices with more than 4.2 kilowatts of power at low voltage that were put into operation on or after 1 January 2024. If overload is imminent, the grid operator may temporarily limit their power consumption, but not switch them off entirely. If the metering point is equipped with an intelligent metering system (smart metering system), control under § 14a paragraph 4 runs via the smart meter gateway. Transitional rules apply to the so-called agile rollout. An intelligent metering system is therefore central to the standardised integration of small installations, but is not in every case already a mandatory prerequisite today.

For larger sites with several end consumers, the legal situation has changed. On 28 November 2024, the CJEU (Case C-293/23) ruled that the previous German interpretation of the customer installation conflicts with Union law. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) followed this on 13 May 2025 (EnVR 83/20). Line installations that systematically pass electricity on to third parties can, accordingly, be regarded as a regulated distribution network. According to assessments from professional practice, pure self-supply installations are likely to continue to be regularly regarded as customer installations.

The 2025 amendment to the EnWG added a temporary transitional rule in § 118 paragraph 7 EnWG. Customer installations that were connected to the grid by 23 December 2025 are treated under the previous law for around three years. For installations connected later, interpretation in conformity with European law remains in place until new legislation is adopted, and thus so does legal uncertainty. For tenant electricity, neighbourhood solutions and commercial sites with onward supply to third parties, this means: whether a model works "behind the meter" without grid operator obligations must be examined on a case-by-case basis.

Responsibilities and conflicting objectives

  • Grid operators: responsible for safe grid operation and connection conditions and, within the framework of § 14a EnWG, for grid-oriented control.

  • Electricity suppliers design tariffs and procure energy, for example through dynamic tariffs that steer consumption into cheaper hours.

  • Metering point operators: ensure metering, data provision and, where applicable, the control infrastructure via the smart meter gateway.

  • Installation operators and aggregators: the operators decide on operation, self-consumption and participation in flexibility offerings. Aggregators bundle many small installations into marketable capacity.

Conflicts arise where technology, market rules and responsibilities diverge. A battery could ease a local grid problem, but perhaps receives only a nationwide price signal. A wallbox could charge flexibly, but is limited by user convenience. A grid operator needs local relief, but may intervene in private installations only within regulated limits.

Assessment

Behind-the-Meter shows that the electricity meter is not a neutral line in the system. It helps determine which electricity flows are measured, remunerated, burdened with charges, controlled or recorded statistically. Through the electrification of heat and transport, many new consumers and flexibilities arise precisely behind the meter. How far they relieve or burden the public grid depends on metering, tariffs, control rights and data protection rules. Position alone does not decide this.

Sources

Related glossary entries

Edited by eCMS on 11.11.2026 15:23

© 2026 Erik Schmidt. All rights reserved. Quotations with a link to the source are welcome.