Publications

‘Federal Court of Justice ruling on construction cost subsidies: What network operators need to bear in mind’ by Brahms

The Federal Court of Justice has issued a recent ruling on the collection of construction cost subsidies for battery storage projects. Lawyer Florian Brahms sees this as providing greater clarity for the industry.

Autor: Dr. Florian Brahms

neue energie / Issue 11/2025

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‘Sustainable smart city concepts’ Legal contribution by Großmann

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND LEGAL INFLUENCE

The transformation towards sustainable and digitally connected cities, known as smart cities, is one of the key challenges of modern urban development. Legislators are pursuing the goal of integrating environmental sustainability, efficient use of resources and digital innovations into an overall urban development concept. Smart city concepts encompass not only the construction of climate-friendly buildings and the expansion of sustainable mobility, but also the networking of data streams and infrastructures.

Autor: Marc Großmann, LL.M. (USYD)

polis EINFLUSS, 03/2025, p. 42

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‘On the collection of a construction cost subsidy (BKZ) for the grid connection of battery storage systems’ by Behr & Brahms

When implementing battery storage projects,
connecting the storage facility to the electricity grid represents a significant
cost factor. The grid operator can initially
demand reimbursement of the costs incurred in establishing the
grid connection itself (connection costs). In addition,
grid operators regularly charge battery storage operators
construction cost subsidies (BKZ)
to cover the expenses incurred for the
construction or reinforcement of the grid’s distribution facilities.
[…]

Autor: Leonie Behr // Dr. Florian Brahms

CuR, 03-2025, pp. 97–103

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‘Contract term and termination exclusion clauses in the usage agreement for the construction and operation of wind turbines’ by Oberpichler & Semper

Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 12 March 2025, ref. XII ZR 76/24: Contract term and termination exclusion clauses in the usage agreement for the construction and operation of wind turbines

Autor: Désirée Oberpichler

EWeRK 2025, Issue 3, p. 112 ff.

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‘Battery storage as a generation plant within the meaning of Section 18 (1) sentence 1 StromNEV – Payment of avoided grid fees for decentralised feed-in from electricity storage facilities’ by Brahms & Behr

Federal Court of Justice, ruling of 26 November 2024, ref. EnVR 17/22: Battery storage as a generation plant within the meaning of Section 18(1) sentence 1 StromNEV – payment of avoided grid fees for decentralised feed-in from electricity storage facilities

Autor: Dr. Florian Brahms // Leonie Behr

EWeRK 2025, Issue 3, p. 102 ff.

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‘Battery storage and “service” within the meaning of Section 35(1)(3) of the German Building Code (BauGB) – The fairy tale of grid serviceability’ by Schulz

Autor: Dr. Patrick Schulz

Journal for German and International Construction and Public Procurement Law (ZfBR), 2025, pp. 429–433

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‘Euphoria as a driver of the urban energy transition’ by Oberpichler

Legal contribution // How green cities can become economic success stories.

Autor: Désirée Oberpichler

polis EUPHORIE 02/2025, p. 42

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‘Addressees of the Energy Efficiency Act’ by Nebel & Jope (external)

The Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) contains a large number of obligations for companies, but does not itself define what is meant by a company; there is no legal definition of this key term in the Act. It is therefore unclear which companies are actually addressed and obligated by the Energy Efficiency Act. The following article concretises the term ‘company’ in the Energy Efficiency Act by means of the terminology in the Energy Services Act (EDL-G), on the basis of EU law and in contrast to the complementary term ‘public body’.

Autor: Dr. Julian Asmus Nebel

ER Energierecht May 2025, p. 110 - 113

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‘Flexible grid connection agreements in the EEG and the EnWG’ by Brahms and Schulze

As part of the grid connection of electricity generation or storage systems, such as systems for the
generation or storage of electricity from renewable energies within the meaning of Section 3 No. 1 EEG
2023 (RE plants) and electricity storage systems, there are currently bottlenecks in grid connections.
In particular, the expansion of renewable energy plants is proceeding faster than the necessary grid expansion
so that there are considerable waiting times for obtaining a grid connection
and the available grid connection points are regularly further away from the plant location.
from the plant location. In order to meet this challenge and speed up the grid connection, there is a need for
legal changes are needed, among other things, to increase flexibility. In the EnWG and
new regulations on the agreement of flexible grid connection agreements between grid operators and plant
between grid operators and system operators, which, among other things, allow the connection of
several systems to a grid connection point with a capacity that exceeds the connection capacity.
capacity. The addition to Section 17 (2b) EnWG and Section 8a EEG 2023 was made
in implementation of Art. 6a of the amended Internal Electricity Market Directive.

Autor: Dr. Florian Brahms // Madita Franke LL.M. (née Schulze)

ER Energierecht Mai 2025, p. 97 - 103

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‘Deep Dive on OOP for the sustainable development of energy projects’ by Brahms

The challenges facing local authorities are manifold. They range from strained public budgets and demographic trends to an increasingly ageing population, the call to adapt urban development to climate change, as well as how to deal with increasing migration and the slow progress of digitalisation. These effects are directly visible to citizens in very different forms, such as dilapidated roads, bridges or rail networks. It remains to be seen whether this situation will develop sustainably and positively for local authorities due to the debt policy that is now in place. However, public-private partnerships (PPPs for short), which can accelerate processes and structures, are a good way of increasing local authorities’ long-term ability to act.

Autor: Dr. Florian Brahms

polis 01/2025, p. 44 ff.

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