The Supreme Court has made a landmark decision concerning photovoltaic projects in Austria. If an electricity generation system that is covered by the existing connection capacity is connected for the first time to an existing grid connection that has already been used to purchase electricity, no grid access fee is charged.

The specific case concerned a company that had installed two photovoltaic systems with a total output of around 16,000 kW on its premises and connected them to an existing grid connection that had previously only been used to purchase electricity.

The responsible grid operator subsequently demanded payment of a grid access fee. The first two instances already rejected this request. The Supreme Court also agreed and stated the following as its main reasoning:
If an electricity generation plant is connected for the first time to a grid connection already used for electricity consumption and this remains within the existing capacity of the connection, no grid access fee is due. There is therefore no grid access within the meaning of § 54 Abs 1 ElWOG.

What does this mean for operators of renewable energy systems?
As a rule, the feed-in of electrical energy also incurs additional costs at (usually several) grid levels, in particular to create the necessary grid capacities for the additional electricity fed in. However, the legislator has decided that these costs should not be borne (proportionately) by the respective electricity feeders, but – via the grid provision fee and the grid utilisation fee – by the electricity consumers. This has not changed as a result of the legislative package for the expansion of renewable energy.

This decision therefore strengthens the expansion of renewable energies and relieves the burden on investors in the photovoltaic sector.

Source:
Supreme Court 25.09.2024, 1 Ob 85/24t No grid access fee for photovoltaic installations… | OGH | ogh.gv.at

Authors: Mag. Victoria Dangl,
Matthias Rölz