Netze BW automates grid approvals for solar systems up to 15 kWp

EnBW's grid subsidiary Netze BW now approves grid connections for photovoltaic systems up to 15 kilowatt-peak within a few minutes when a request is a clear standard case, the company said on October 19, 2026. Customers previously waited up to 12 days for manual processing. More than 5,000 requests were approved automatically during the introduction phase, against a volume Netze BW puts at about 60,000 requests a year.

The check runs on a digital model of the operator's lines, transformer stations and service connections. It calculates free capacity, checks limits and counts connections already promised. Clear standard cases are decided automatically and more complex ones go to staff. Netze BW says a response usually arrives within a day at the latest.

The approvals are binding and name the connection point, Netze BW's Marc Schmidt told journalists at a briefing, per pv magazine. It reports that the system went live at the end of July 2026 after a test phase that began in November 2025, and that more than 16,000 requests for small PV systems have arrived since. Automation applies only where the local grid is not considered critical; where capacity is short, staff look for reinforcement needs or another connection point, and the wait can stretch back to 12 days. Systems above 15 kW still get a human check.

Management board chair Jörg Reichert offered an example from the late-July go-live: a request filed at 1:03 a.m. had its connection-point notice sent at 1:08. "Part of our work really does take care of itself overnight," he said in the release (our translation). The company says the digital process became important because volume swings: monthly requests at times rose from about 2,000 to as many as 7,000.

Twelve days was already fast against its peers. pv magazine's account calls it Netze BW's average for manual handling, against an 80-day median across all distribution operators in a comparison it cites; the release itself frames the old wait as up to 12 days. Massachusetts went after a different part of the problem in August 2026: regulators approved a flat $225 fee that pools grid-upgrade costs, up to a cap, that used to land on whichever small-solar applicant triggered them.