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Glossary · Energy industry & energy transition

Bid deadline date (Gebotstermin)

bid deadline Tender renewable energies Capacity market market premium electricity market support scheme

A Gebotstermin (bid deadline date) is the day on which the deadline for submitting bids ends in a competitive award procedure. In German law the term is expressly defined in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Under it, the Gebotstermin is the calendar day on which the deadline for submitting bids for a tender expires. It therefore refers to a calendar day and not to a specific time of day. Bids must have been received by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) no later than on that day. Sending a bid in time is not sufficient. In addition, each bid must state the Gebotstermin for which it is submitted.

Put simply, the Gebotstermin is the closing date for receipt of bids in a tender. By then, bidders must have submitted in full all the information needed for the evaluation. Depending on the procedure, this includes, for example, the bid value, bid quantity, location, permits, securities and fees. Only afterwards does the competent body examine the bids, rank them and either award contracts or exclude bids. On the Gebotstermin, no plant is built and no support is paid out. On that day, however, the bidder makes a binding economic commitment. An award can later give rise to rights and obligations, such as a claim to the market premium or the obligation to implement a project within a deadline.

End of the deadline, weekends and upstream deadlines

In practice, the Bundesnetzagentur distinguishes between the statutory Gebotstermin and the actual submission deadline. If the Gebotstermin falls on a Sunday or a public holiday, the end of the deadline is postponed to the next working day under sections 188 and 193 of the German Civil Code (BGB). For example, the submission deadline in the biomass round with the Gebotstermin of 1 October 2023 only ended on Monday, 2 October 2023. Other deadlines that depend on the Gebotstermin are not postponed as a result. For example, permits for biomass plants must have been granted and reported to the register four weeks before the Gebotstermin. This reporting deadline stays the same even if the submission deadline is postponed. The Bundesnetzagentur expressly points this out. The same four-week rule applies to onshore wind turbines.

The Gebotstermin is therefore a reference point for a whole chain of deadlines: beforehand the announcement of the tender and the reporting of permits, afterwards the examination of the bids, the awards and the implementation deadlines. Anyone who only pays attention to the submission day may miss an upstream deadline and thus be excluded from the round.

Distinction from related terms

  • Tender volume (Ausschreibungsvolumen): Under the EEG, the sum of the capacity to be installed for which the entitlement to the market premium is put out to tender for a Gebotstermin. It is stated in kilowatts or megawatts, i.e. as installed capacity and not as an amount of energy.

  • Bid quantity and bid value: The bid quantity is the capacity for which a bidder bids. The bid value is the applicable value (anzulegender Wert) in cents per kilowatt hour that the bidder names. In everyday language it is often called the bid price.

  • Award (Zuschlag): The decision on which bids are successful. It follows the Gebotstermin after an interval of several weeks. In the EEG rounds, awards are deemed to have been announced one week after their public announcement.

  • Implementation deadline (Realisierungsfrist): The period within which a project that has been awarded a contract must enter operation. Otherwise, penalty payments or loss of the award are threatened.

Example: tenders under the EEG

For onshore wind turbines, the EEG 2023 currently in force provides for four fixed Gebotstermine per year: 1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November. The annual volume of 10,000 megawatts for 2026 is distributed evenly across these dates and then adjusted according to statutory rules. The Bundesnetzagentur can reduce the volume of a Gebotstermin if too few bids are expected (threatened undersubscription). For the Gebotstermin of 1 February 2026 it made no reduction. Around 3,445 megawatts were put out to tender. 439 bids were awarded contracts, with a maximum value of 7.25 cents per kilowatt hour. The quantity-weighted average award value was 5.54 cents per kilowatt hour. For photovoltaic ground-mounted systems, rooftop systems, biomass and innovation tenders as well, the EEG sets its own Gebotstermine.

The Gebotstermine are expected to change. The government draft for an EEG 2027 provides for only three Gebotstermine for onshore wind in 2027: 1 February, 1 May and 1 November. From 2028, they are to be 1 May, 1 August and 1 November. In both 2027 and 2028, 15,000 megawatts are to be put out to tender each year. In addition, the draft provides for additional resilience tenders and two-sided contracts for difference (see Two-sided CfD). According to the sources consulted here, this is still a draft and not law in force.

Example: capacity mechanism

Gebotstermine exist not only in the support of renewable energy. Under the Electricity Security of Supply and Capacity Act (StromVKG), the Bundesnetzagentur announced the first tender for long-term capacities in July 2026. The Gebotstermin was 8 September 2026. The volume put out to tender was 4,500 megawatts of derated capacity. By the Gebotstermin, 41 bids with a total of around 11,958 megawatts had been received. Seven bids were excluded, among other reasons because of missing mandatory information or evidence. Eleven bids received an award on 3 November 2026, totalling around 5,160 megawatts. This figure exceeds the volume because the bid that first exceeded the quantity put out to tender was still awarded in full. Here, no generated kilowatt hour is remunerated, but the provision of firm capacity for security of supply.

In the procurement of balancing reserve, one usually does not speak of Gebotstermine. These auctions run in short, often daily cycles. They do not organise the construction of plants, but the short-term provision of operating capacity. All these procedures share only the basic idea: offers received by a fixed point in time are made comparable and selected according to fixed rules.

Why the date shapes the market

Gebotstermine determine when competition actually takes place. Project developers align permitting procedures, land securing, grid connection requests, expert reports and financing commitments accordingly. Anyone who misses a date has to wait for the next round. For onshore wind, under current law this can mean three months, and in other segments even longer. A bid bundles expectations about construction costs, interest rates, electricity prices, grid connection costs and permitting risks at exactly this point in time. Between the Gebotstermin, the ordering of components and the commissioning of a wind farm there are often years. The bid value is therefore also a snapshot of the bidder's risk assessment.

Common misinterpretations

  • Many bids for one date do not mean that the capacity will soon be connected to the grid. Only the realisation rate shows how much of it is actually built.

  • Few bids do not prove that a technology is uneconomic. They can also point to missing permits, missing grid connections, maximum values that are too low or expected rule changes.

  • An award value is not a direct measure of the cost of a technology. It depends on the tender design, i.e. on the maximum value, pricing rule, securities, penalty payments and remuneration mechanism, and on competition in the respective round.

  • A bid is not yet a final investment decision. Securities and implementation deadlines are meant to prevent scarce volumes from being blocked by projects that cannot realistically be implemented.

Assessment

The Gebotstermin says nothing about whether a tender design is good or whether an expansion target is achievable. It is, however, the point in time at which technical project maturity, financing, legal requirements and politically set expansion volumes come together. Anyone who wants to assess tender results should therefore always also know the rules of this date: deadlines, volumes, participation conditions and maximum values. In doing so, it must be noted whether the respective date is set under current law or under a draft.

Sources

Related glossary entries

Edited by eCMS on 12.11.2026 05:05

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