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Glossary · Energy industry & energy transition

Export Limitation

export limitation Feed-in Limitation grid connection photovoltaics storage distribution grid Connected capacity

Export limitation, in German usually called Einspeisebegrenzung, is an upper limit on the electrical power that a plant may feed into the public electricity grid at the grid connection point. Behind this point, the plant may be designed larger, generate more electricity, consume electricity or combine several components. For the grid, only the power that actually flows into the public grid via the grid connection counts. German energy law usually calls this point of transfer the Verknüpfungspunkt or Netzverknüpfungspunkt (point of interconnection).

The limit is measured as power, usually in kilowatts or megawatts. For AC connections, a distinction is made between active power in kilowatts and apparent power in kilovolt-amperes. In Germany, statutory and contractual feed-in limits generally refer to active power. For lines, transformers and inverters, however, apparent power often matters as well, because it determines the thermal load on the equipment.

An export limitation is important for photovoltaic plants, battery storage systems, charging parks, commercial sites, neighbourhoods and hybrid plants. An example: a site operates a photovoltaic plant with 1,000 kilowatts of installed capacity, but by contract or technically may only feed 600 kilowatts into the grid. It can consume the remaining electricity itself, store it temporarily in a storage system or curtail it. At the grid connection point, the grid operator then never sees more feed-in than the agreed limit.

Connection capacity, plant capacity and actual export

The term separates three quantities that often become blurred in debates. The installed capacity describes the technical size of the generation plant, for photovoltaics for example the sum of the module capacities. The connection capacity indicates how much power may be drawn or fed in via the grid connection. Actual feed-in depends on weather, consumption at the site, storage state of charge, control and grid requirements.

For photovoltaics, this difference is particularly important. Modules reach their rated power only under certain irradiance and temperature conditions. Over large parts of the year, many plants deliver significantly less than the installed capacity suggests. A moderate export limitation can therefore conserve grid capacity without annual generation falling in the same proportion: only the rare midday peaks are cut off. How much energy is lost in the process depends heavily on the orientation of the plant, the ratio of module to inverter capacity, self-consumption and any storage system. A hard limitation can cost considerable amounts of energy, especially for large ground-mounted plants or at sites with little self-consumption.

An export limitation therefore says nothing about the total electricity generation of a plant. It is a limit at the point of transfer to the grid. When feed-in reaches this limit, the plant has to react: the inverter throttles output, a battery storage system absorbs surpluses, controllable loads are switched on or generation is curtailed. Which solution is worthwhile depends on electricity prices, support rules, self-consumption, storage size, grid charges and the technical requirements of the grid operator.

Legal framework in Germany (as of November 2026)

In German law, feed-in limitations exist in two fundamentally different forms: as a statutory obligation for certain smaller plants and as a voluntary agreement between the grid operator and the plant operator.

  • Statutory interim limitation under Section 9(2) EEG 2023: As long as no smart metering system with a control device has been installed and the grid operator has not yet successfully tested controllability, a limit applies at the point of interconnection: the maximum active power feed-in must be limited to 60 percent of the installed capacity. This affects plants below 25 kilowatts that are assigned to the feed-in tariff or the tenant electricity surcharge (Mieterstromzuschlag), as well as CHP plants below 25 kilowatts. Plants from 25 up to below 100 kilowatts additionally need a remotely controllable reduction. Exempt are plug-in solar devices of up to 2 kilowatts of installed capacity and 800 volt-amperes of inverter capacity behind the withdrawal point of a final consumer. Here too, only feed-in is limited, not generation: electricity that is self-consumed or stored does not count towards the 60 percent.

  • New plants and transitional law: According to the Verbraucherzentrale (consumer advice centre), the 60 percent limit applies to plants that have been commissioned without a smart metering system and control box since the Solarspitzengesetz (Solar Peak Act) of 25 February 2025. The limit ceases to apply as soon as the control technology has been installed and successfully tested. Transitional rules apply to older plants (Section 100 EEG 2023).

  • Flexible grid connection agreement under Section 8a EEG 2023, inserted with effect from 25 February 2025: Grid operators and plant operators can agree on a connection-side limitation of the maximum active power feed-in. The plant operator must technically ensure at all times that the limit is complied with. The limitation can be restricted to certain time windows and can differ in level from one time window to another. The contract must regulate at least: the level of the limit, where applicable the time windows, the duration, the technical implementation and liability in case of exceedance. If several operators share one point of interconnection (cable pooling), their consent and joint and several responsibility are also required.

  • Consequences of a flexible agreement: In the assessment of the Clearingstelle EEG|KWKG, Section 8a does not directly oblige anyone to conclude such an agreement. During its term, purchase and, where applicable, remuneration are limited to the feed-in agreed by contract. The support period is not extended, even if less may be fed in at times. If the most favourable point of interconnection is not at the location with the shortest straight-line distance, the grid operator must examine under Section 8a(3) whether a flexible agreement is possible in principle. It communicates the result together with its grid compatibility assessment.

This information applies to Germany and to plants within the scope of the EEG. For pure consumption and storage connections, energy industry law provides its own rule on flexible grid connection contracts (Section 17(2b) EnWG), which can also cover electricity withdrawal. Other countries have different rules and terminology.

Distinction from feed-in management, redispatch and zero export

Export limitation is often confused with other forms of power control. An export limitation is a limit at the grid connection point that is set in advance and is permanent or rule-based. It can be static, for example the statutory 60 percent limit for small photovoltaic plants without control technology or a fixed kilowatt value in the connection contract. It can also be staggered over time or dynamic. The 70 percent rule for small photovoltaic plants that was formerly widespread in Germany is no longer the current standard for new plants.

Curtailment is the more general term for any reduction of generation output. Triggers can be grid congestion, statutory requirements, market prices or protective functions. The classic feed-in management for grid congestion has been absorbed into Redispatch 2.0 in Germany since October 2021. In redispatch, the grid operator selectively changes feed-in or consumption at specific locations on a case-by-case basis in order to resolve a concrete congestion. Export limitation is narrower: it limits export at the connection, regardless of whether there is currently congestion. Compensation as in redispatch is in principle not provided for it.

Zero export is a special case: no power at all may flow into the grid at the grid connection point. The photovoltaic plant continues to cover self-consumption, but must prevent any feed-in. This is technically more demanding than it sounds, because measurement and control have to react very quickly. If consumption at the site suddenly drops, the inverter must not push power into the grid. Zero export therefore requires clean measurement at the grid connection point and a control system that coordinates inverters, storage and loads. Whether the grid operator requires a particular control speed or protection technology for this is governed by its technical connection conditions.

Why export limitation can make grid connections possible

Bottlenecks in the distribution grid often arise not from the annual quantity of electricity but from short power peaks. Lines and transformers must be designed for the highest load. If many photovoltaic plants feed in strongly at the same time on sunny days, the voltage can rise or a piece of equipment can be overloaded. A connection for the full theoretical plant capacity can then be expensive, lengthy or, for the time being, not available at all.

An export limitation can nevertheless make the connection possible. The grid operator does not have to plan for the full generation capacity, but can calculate with the guaranteed export limit. In technical jargon, the point of interconnection is then oversized: there is more capacity behind it than it could absorb. The plant operator can thus build a larger plant, cover more self-consumption or combine wind, photovoltaics and storage at a shared connection with cable pooling without correspondingly increasing the connection capacity.

In the process, costs and responsibility shift. The grid operator avoids or delays grid expansion. The plant operator bears the costs for control, metering, where applicable a storage system, and for the curtailed generation. Whether this is worthwhile from the perspective of the economy as a whole cannot be judged at the level of the individual connection. If many plants are permanently limited to a large extent, valuable renewable generation is lost. If, on the other hand, the limitation takes effect only rarely, it makes better use of the grid infrastructure and speeds up connection procedures.

Technical implementation at the grid connection point

Technically, export limitation is based on measurement and control. A meter or power meter at the grid connection point records how much power flows into the grid or is drawn from it. A controller compares this value with the permissible limit and, where necessary, sends setpoints to inverters, storage systems or controllable loads. Where several plants are at the same point of interconnection, Section 9 EEG 2023 also allows a joint technical device for the statutory limitation.

For simple plants, a fixed limitation at the inverter, which acts independently of self-consumption, is often sufficient. This is robust but makes poor use of the possibilities behind the meter. A dynamic limitation takes current consumption into account. Example: a business is currently consuming 300 kilowatts itself, and the export limit is 600 kilowatts. The photovoltaic plant may then generate a total of 900 kilowatts without exceeding the limit. If consumption falls, generation must fall accordingly or a storage system must charge.

Battery storage systems change the calculation. They absorb surpluses when the export limit is reached and release the electricity later. In this way they reduce curtailment losses and make limited connection capacity more valuable. A storage system does not, however, automatically solve every connection problem. It needs sufficient power and capacity, must fit the load profile and must be controlled so that it can still absorb electricity during the decisive hours. If it is already full in the morning, it can no longer absorb the midday peak of the photovoltaic plant. Whether a storage system that is charged only with solar electricity itself falls under the 60 percent limit is disputed in practice.

Typical misinterpretations

It is often said that export limitation artificially hinders renewable energies. In individual cases this can be true, for example when connections are systematically dimensioned too tightly or plants are curtailed unnecessarily heavily. As a general statement it is imprecise. The limitation can also help to connect more plants faster, because not every connection has to be designed for rare maximum values.

Equally wrong is the assumption that an export limitation is free of charge. Curtailed electricity means lost revenue or lost energy, and storage, control and metering concepts cost money to purchase and operate. These costs often do not arise at the grid operator, but at the plant operator or at the electricity customer behind the meter. In addition: with a flexible grid connection agreement, the EEG support period is not extended. An objective assessment must disclose who bears which costs and which grid reinforcement is thereby avoided.

The term Einspeisebegrenzung (feed-in limitation) can also be misleading. What is limited is not necessarily generation, but feed-in into the grid. Behind the grid connection point, electricity can continue to be generated and used. For self-consumption models, tenant electricity (Mieterstrom), charging infrastructure and industrial sites, this difference is central, because it decides whether a larger generation plant can be operated economically despite a limited grid connection.

Significance for a more electrified energy system

With more photovoltaics, heat pumps, electric vehicles, battery storage systems and electrified industry, the grid connection point becomes more important. Technical possibilities, market rules and grid responsibility meet there. Export limitation is a tool for managing this interface more precisely. It does not replace grid expansion, but it can make existing grid capacity more usable if it is regulated transparently, implemented reliably in technical terms and assessed soundly in economic terms.

For planning, therefore, it is not only the size of a plant that counts. What is decisive is which profile it generates at the grid connection point, how flexibly generation and consumption can react, and which limitation is guaranteed by contract. This is why export limitation is closely linked to flexibility, storage, load management and grid connection rules. Used correctly, the term separates installed capacity, actual feed-in and secured connection capacity. This separation is needed if more decentralised generation is to be connected to the grid without immediately securing every rare power peak through additional grid expansion.

Sources

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Edited by eCMS on 11.11.2026 19:47

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