Power Plants

Procedure in the case of connection requests by power plant operators for the purpose of feeding into the Amprion grid

Amprion enables the connection of power plants as of a rated power of 100 MW to the grid for the purpose of feeding electrical energy into the transmission grid in accordance with the following transparent and non-discriminatory procedure. This procedure is based on the provisions of the Ordinance for Regulating Grid Connection of Electricity Generating Installations ("Kraftwerks-Netzanschlussverordnung - KraftNAV") dated 26th June 2007.

A. Overview:

The procedure for allocating grid connection capacities to power plants comprises different steps which are detailed under section B. The procedure commences upon receipt of a qualified inquiry (B. 1.). This is basically followed by the assignment and preparation of a feasibility study (B. 2.), a connection commitment (B. 3.) and the conclusion of a grid connection contract (B. 4.).

B. Procedure:

System diagram

A concise presentation of the system diagram can be found in "Electricity Transmission 2009 - Region Model" and "Electricity Transmission 2013 - Region Model" or our company profile. In case of a vested interest, a system diagram with all electricity circuits, switchgears, busbars and substations may be requested from Amprion GmbH under acceptance of a declaration of confidence. For this purpose, please send a letter specifying your vested interest and with a signed declaration of confidence attached to the following address.

Amprion GmbH
Dpt. N-CN
Robert-Schuman-Straße 7

44263 Dortmund

Company profile

Declaration of confidence

Results

Here you can find an overview of current requests

1. Qualified enquiry

Qualified enquiries for connection requests for the purpose of feeding electrical energy into the transmission grid (referred to as connection requests in the following) are addressed to Amprion in the form of a registered letter. They must include substantiated information on the contents specified in Annex 1. If substantial information is missing from the written connection request or data are implausible, the enquiry is not initially deemed as a qualified connection request. In the event of missing information, Amprion will inform the connection prospect in writing within one week, asking it to subsequently submit the missing information or to verify plausibility within a period of grace of one week. If this is carried out within the period of grace, the connection prospect's enquiry will be deemed qualified retroactively to the time of the original application, otherwise the inquiry will be finally deemed not qualified.

ANNEXES FOR DOWNLOAD

ANNEX 1

Connection enquiries must be addressed to:

Amprion GmbH
Dept. N-CN
Robert-Schuman-Straße 7
D-44263 Dortmund

Amprion will publish the receipt of qualified enquiries on its website in anonymous form, so that connection prospects can obtain an overview of current feed-in capacity developments within the Amprion control area in advance.

2. Grid studies

2.1 Individual feasibility study

Once a qualified enquiry has been received, Amprion will offer the connection prospect the execution of a technical feasibility study within two weeks following receipt of the complete data pursuant to number B.1.

Apart from the general network evaluation of the connection options to the Amprion extra high-voltage grid, this feasibility study will also determine the appropriate network connection point, identify the measures required to create the appropriate network connection point and review any other effects of the connection request on the grid.

The prospect will be liable to pay the costs of the feasibility study, which will be prepared within three months after the relevant prerequisites have been met. Refer to the sample offer under the following link for further details:

Standard offer (German version)

2.2 Load flow model

Amprion additionally publishes an overview of the development of the national power flow and the installed power plant capacity within the Amprion grid area in the Internet. This is a simplified model showing the future power plant feed-in situation and load flows ("electricity transmission 2013"). This is based on findings and forecasts regarding the development of the feed-in and load situation. In addition to the individual feasibility study, the model provides connection prospects with indications regarding the grid situation in the feed-in region.

3. Connection commitment

When mailing the results of the feasibility study, Amprion will make a connection commitment to the connection prospect, including a reservation of the relevant grid connection capacity.

The payment of a reservation charge of € 1,000 per MW, will guarantee the grid connection scheme developed in the feasibility study for the connection prospect.

As soon as the power plant has been connected to the grid of Amprion, the charge will be counted towards the grid connection costs to be paid by the connection prospect. However, should the power plant not be erected or not be connected to the grid of Amprion, the reservation charge will be refunded in those cases in which the connection prospect is not responsible for the aborted realisation.

A schedule for the negotiations on the grid connection contract (negotiation schedule) has to be drawn up no later than three months after the connection commitment has been made. Conclusion of the grid connection contract should take no longer than 12 months.

For further details use the following link to the standard connection commitment:

Connection commitment

4. Grid connection contract

is under revision

5. Additional contracts

Apart from the grid connection contract, the remaining contractual details of the connection request for the purpose of feeding electricity into the grid of Amprion require additional contracts. These are in particular the connection usage contract, the grid usage contract, the connection construction contract and the grid management contract.

Details of the contents of these contracts can be gathered from the standard contracts posted on our webpage:

6. Dealing with competing connection requests

Competing grid connection requests exist if qualified connection requests are addressed to Amprion, which impact upon each other so that not all connection requests can be granted or subordinated inquiries with a lower priority ranking involve higher connection costs in relation to the inquiries which were received earlier and have therefore been given priority.

In the event of such a competing situation, Amprion will make a connection commitment to the connection request with time-related priority with no account taken of the competing inquiries, if the preconditions pursuant to para. B.3 are met.

If the connection commitment granted to the first connection prospect becomes void, he can no longer invoke priority over the competing connection request.

The parties affected by a competing situation will be informed about any requests anonymously competing with each other.

7. Scope

The procedure described is applicable to qualified connection requests addressed to Amprion as from 30.6.2007. Any connection requests already made before this date, for which no contractual agreements on grid connection have been concluded, have to be migrated to the present procedure.

If contractually secured grid connection capacity is to be increased by more than 5% , the respective party has to go through the entire procedure pursuant to para. B.1. to 4. for all the additional grid capacity required.

8. Reservation rule

Amprion reserves the right to adapt the procedural model to any new requirements if any relevant legal provisions or regulations are enacted or changed and in the event of any requirements imposed by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur).

9. Procedure (brief presentation)

Procedure (brief presentation)