BVES Annual assem­bly: Posi­tive out­look for the indus­try despite regu­la­tory obs­ta­cles

The indus­try is gro­wing and so does the BVES

BVES mem­bers gathe­red in Ber­lin on Novem­ber 23 to take a look back at 2023 and set goals and tasks for 2024. They wel­co­med 30 new mem­ber com­pa­nies and admit­ted them to the BVES.

The instal­la­tion figu­res for sto­rage sys­tems show good deve­lo­p­ment and there is fun­da­men­tal opti­mism in all three mar­ket seg­ments for energy sto­rage sys­tems: house­hold, industry/commercial and sys­tem infra­struc­ture. Well over 1 mil­lion energy sto­rage sys­tems have now been instal­led in the house­hold sec­tor. Energy sto­rage pro­jects in indus­try have dou­bled in the cur­rent year, and capa­ci­ties for large-scale sto­rage pro­jects in the grid are gro­wing signi­fi­cantly.

Despite posi­tive deve­lo­p­ments, the regu­la­tory frame­work remains a chall­enge for the inte­gra­tion of sto­rage tech­no­lo­gies into the energy sys­tem BVES is actively invol­ved in legis­la­tive mat­ters and works clo­sely with poli­ti­cal decis­ion-makers and rele­vant bodies to imple­ment prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons. At the mem­bers’ mee­ting, the BVES repor­ted suc­ces­ses with its sto­rage stra­tegy regar­ding the big­gest hurd­les for energy sto­rage, such as grid fees, con­s­truc­tion cost sub­si­dies, and the exclu­si­vity prin­ci­ple. All three pro­blems have been addres­sed, are being worked on and have alre­ady been par­ti­ally eli­mi­na­ted.

Poli­ti­cal advan­ces for energy sto­rage

Throug­hout the year 2023, legis­la­tive initia­ti­ves demons­tra­ted an incre­asing reco­gni­tion of the role of energy sto­rage, even within the poli­ti­cal sphere For exam­ple, on July 1, the long-deman­ded sto­rage defi­ni­tion came into effect. Addi­tio­nally, on Novem­ber 17, the Bun­des­tag pas­sed the Heat Plan­ning Act with a clear defi­ni­tion of ther­mal sto­rage, which was included in the law based on the advice of the BVES.

The new fun­ding pro­gram from the Fede­ral Minis­try of Digi­tal and Trans­port for char­ging infra­struc­ture now con­siders energy sto­rage as a ser­vice pro­vi­der along­side net­work expan­sion in a non-dis­cri­mi­na­tory man­ner. The cru­cial exten­sion of the exemp­tion from net­work char­ges for ano­ther 3 years now pro­vi­des a cer­tain level of plan­ning secu­rity for large-scale sto­rage pro­jects.

Howe­ver, these initia­ti­ves only bring tem­po­rary relief or par­tial solu­ti­ons. There is still a lack of an ade­quate and uni­form sto­rage stra­tegy from the fede­ral govern­ment that enables the expan­sion of fle­xi­bi­li­ties through energy sto­rage. This was a cen­tral point of dis­cus­sion at the gene­ral mee­ting, atten­ded by repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the Minis­try of Eco­nomy and Cli­mate Action and the Minis­try of Con­s­truc­tion, as well as from the Fede­ral Asso­cia­tion of Ger­man Housing and Real Estate Com­pa­nies (GdW e.V.), and the Cen­tral Real Estate Com­mit­tee (ZIA e.V). The fruitful dis­cus­sions showed a com­mit­ment to con­ti­nuing the dia­log and working on tan­gi­ble solu­ti­ons.

The gene­ral mee­ting con­cluded with the aim to con­ti­nue advo­ca­ting for fair and appro­priate regu­la­tory frame­works through dia­lo­gue with poli­cy­ma­kers and edu­ca­tio­nal efforts in 2024.