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Glossary · Energy industry & energy transition

Feed-in priority (Einspeisevorrang)

Priority Feed-in EEG renewable energies Feed-in Management Curtailment market integration

Feed-in priority is a legal priority in the purchase and onward transmission of electricity from certain generation plants. In Germany, the term refers above all to section 11 of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2023). Under it, grid operators must purchase, transmit and distribute all electricity from renewable energy sources and from mine gas without delay and with priority in physical terms. This applies to electricity sold in one of the forms of disposal provided for by law. The obligation is current law. It is not a thing of the past. It has had its present wording since 25 February 2025.

However, the priority is not unlimited. The law expressly makes it subject to section 13 of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) and to deviating rules in an ordinance under section 91 number 2 EEG. Section 13 EnWG governs the system responsibility of the transmission system operators. If additional feed-in endangers the security or reliability of the grid, grid operators may and must intervene, including in the case of renewable plants.

A legal rule, not a physical property

Feed-in priority does not describe a property of electricity. In the grid, energy cannot be sorted by its origin. Physically, electricity flows according to the resistances and the state of the grid. The priority is a ranking for grid operators: who has to step back when lines, transformers or the voltage band reach their limits? Priority therefore also does not mean that green electricity is always consumed first. It works through obligations, schedules, balancing, grid measures and settlement, not through an electricity trail from the wind turbine to the socket.

The EEG distinguishes two forms of purchase. Physical purchase applies to all connected plants. Commercial purchase is included only if the operator claims a feed-in tariff. In that case the grid operator also buys the electricity in economic terms. In direct marketing, operators or direct marketers sell the electricity themselves on the market. The grid operator then only has to take it up and transmit it with priority in physical terms. Anyone who has concluded a flexible grid connection agreement under section 8a EEG has priority only up to the agreed maximum feed-in capacity. It does not apply to electricity above that.

Distinction from connection priority, remuneration and merit order

  • Connection priority: It concerns the grid connection and is set out in section 8 EEG. Grid operators must connect renewable plants to their grid without delay and with priority. The feed-in priority under section 11 EEG, by contrast, applies during ongoing operation. The two rules are related but govern different situations.

  • Support: The feed-in tariff or market premium governs a plant's revenue. The priority governs how the grid deals with it. A plant can be entitled to support and still be curtailed because of a bottleneck.

  • Merit order: On the wholesale market, bids are ranked by their short-term marginal costs. EU law expressly defines “priority dispatch” as a power plant deployment that does not follow this economic ranking. German feed-in priority in the grid and priority in power plant dispatch under EU law are therefore related, but not the same thing.

European framework: priority only for small plants

Since 1 January 2020, the EU Electricity Market Regulation (EU) 2019/943 has applied. Under its Article 12, the dispatch of generation plants and flexible consumers is in principle to be non-discriminatory, transparent and market-based. Member States only have to ensure priority dispatch for small renewable plants below 400 kilowatts and for approved demonstration projects. This applies only to the extent that secure grid operation permits. For plants that start operation from 1 January 2026, the threshold falls to below 200 kilowatts. Older supported plants that started operation before 4 July 2019 may keep their priority.

Germany has drawn the threshold more narrowly. According to a notification from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs to the EU Commission, priority dispatch within the meaning of the Regulation applies here only to plants of up to 100 kilowatts. Larger plants generally sell their electricity directly on the market and are dispatched on a market basis. For them, the grid-related priority remains in congestion management.

Curtailment, redispatch and minimum factor

The limit of the priority shows in curtailment. A plant then feeds in less than it currently could. Wind and solar power lost in this way cannot be made up later. Until September 2021, this throttling in the event of grid bottlenecks was called feed-in management and was regulated in the EEG. Since 1 October 2021, it has been part of redispatch under sections 13 and 13a EnWG, so-called Redispatch 2.0. There, uniform rules apply to conventional, renewable and combined heat and power (CHP) plants from 100 kilowatts, as well as to plants that the grid operator can remotely control at any time.

In redispatch, the priority is secured by a calculation method. For the curtailment of renewable plants, the transmission system operators apply a high calculated price. To this end, the Federal Network Agency set minimum factors on 30 November 2020: 10 for renewable plants and 5 for CHP plants with priority. Put simply, a renewable plant is curtailed only if, as a rule, this replaces a multiple of the throttling of conventional power plants. An example: if a coal-fired power plant can relieve the grid bottleneck with similar effectiveness, it must ramp down first. If, however, a wind farm is located directly at the bottleneck and has a many times stronger effect, it may be curtailed. The operators concerned generally receive financial compensation under section 13a EnWG.

Why the priority was important and where it reaches its limits

The electricity system was tailored to large, controllable power plants. The priority reduced the risk that new, often small and decentralised plants could not feed in merely because of these established structures. Together with support, it made investments more predictable and facilitated financing. With growing shares of wind and solar, the bottleneck has shifted. Earlier it was above all market access. Today it is rather grid capacity, locations and temporal flexibility. Wind power is generated in concentrated form in the north, solar power around midday. A priority rule alone does not solve this. That requires grid expansion, storage, flexible consumers and suitable market rules.

Curtailment therefore first of all indicates a bottleneck and is not proof of the failure of renewables. A certain amount can be cheaper than a line that would be fully utilised for only a few hours a year. High and growing volumes, by contrast, point to coordination problems. The costs of redispatch are passed on to grid users through grid charges.

Current reform debate (as of November 2026)

In 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs presented a grid connection package. It provides for “capacity-limited grid areas” and a “redispatch reservation”. According to a paper by the Scientific Services of the Bundestag, a grid area is to be able to be classified as capacity-limited if the redispatch volume reaches 5 percent. In such areas, newly connected plants are to waive financial compensation in whole or in part in the event of grid-related curtailment. The risk of curtailment would thus be shifted to the operators. Feed-in itself would not be limited in volume. Whether and in what form the package enters into force had not been confirmed at the editorial deadline. Until then, the EEG and EnWG currently in force are decisive.

In summary, feed-in priority is a legal priority within technical limits. It is not a promise that every kilowatt-hour that can be generated will be taken up without limit. It explains neither the electricity price nor security of supply on its own. It does show, however, how the law treats renewable generation relative to other plants.

Sources

Related glossary entries

Edited by eCMS on 11.11.2026 19:43

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