Network Development Plans 2030 (2017)

The Energy Industry Act, which was amended in 2015, stipulates that the transmission system operators will no longer have to prepare a joint plan every year, but every two years instead. In future, the Offshore Network Development Plan (O-NDP) is to be replaced by the Offshore Site Development Plan, which will be produced by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. By switching to a two-year cycle, the German legislative authorities have thus satisfied demands made by both the TSOs and numerous stakeholders, eliminating overlaps in time schedules between various different processes.

Another change to the Network Development Plans 2025 can also be seen in the number of scenarios. In contrast to the previous scenario framework, the 2017 version of the scenario framework 2030 contains four scenarios instead of six. Furthermore, for the first time, the scenarios no longer refer to a fixed time period of ten or twenty years. The specifications for the time frames used have also been adjusted in the German Energy Industry Act and made more flexible in order to improve synchronisation between the Network Development Plans and the planning periods for European energy policy. In future, three scenarios are to cover a time period of between ten and a maximum of fifteen years. One scenario is to show developments for a time period of between fifteen and a maximum of twenty years.

On 31 January 2017, the transmission system operators published the first drafts of the plans and submitted these to the German Federal Network Agency. The public consultation period for both drafts was between 31 January and 28 February 2017. Following a content review of all responses received, the TSOs revised the first drafts accordingly. The resulting second drafts of the NDP and the O-NDP were published on 2 May and submitted to the Federal Network Agency.

You can find German documents about the NDP and O-NDP 2030, version 2017 below; individual documents are also available in English. The Network Development Plan Electricity and the Offshore Network Development Plan 2030 are only available in German. For more detailed information, please see the German website.