Digitalising the German energy transition for municipal utilities, grid and metering operators.
Programme leadership, architecture, regulation and prototype from a single source. From the BNetzA ruling through strategy and target picture to a system that runs.
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Portfolio
One sequence, not ten.
Prioritisation, steering, budget, vendors.
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Architecture
The target picture that holds.
Clean Core, IS-U replacement, data spaces.
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Regulation
From statute to requirement.
§14a, MsbG, MaKo, NIS2, EU AI Act.
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Prototype and AI
Working code in days.
Forecasting, grid state, clarification cases, customer service.
DEADLINES
The next dates for grid, metering and market
The next deadlines that trigger budgets and programmes in 2026 and 2027. As of 14 September 2026.
Gas WACC: end of the consultation on the rate of return
Gas distribution grid operators can comment on the draft decision on the flat-rate return on capital. The 3.76 percent rate carries the revenue caps from 2028.
Grid & low voltage 18 September 2026AgNeS: consultation on the grid charge reform closes
Comments on the new electricity grid charge system at the Grand Ruling Chamber; framework ruling by end of 2026.
Flexibility, storage & grid charges 28 September 2026Grid development scenarios 2027: end of the consultation
Distribution grid operators and municipal utilities can comment on the electricity and gas/hydrogen drafts. The assumptions frame the grid development plan.
Grid & low voltage 1 October 2026MaKo format release, notice no. 56
26 EDIFACT formats and AS4 adjustments become binding. Test schedule, clarification processes and fallback scenarios must be in place.
Market communication & market processes 1 October 2026MiSpeL: ruling on market integration of storage and charging points
Balancing and grid charges for storage and bidirectional charging points; MaKo automation only from 2027.
Flexibility, storage & grid charges 1 October 2026WiM Gas 2.0 applies
Digitalised metering switch processes for gas, new message formats.
Market communication & market processes 15 October 20262027 network charges: publication by 15 October
Electricity and gas distribution grid operators publish their 2027 network charges online. If the charges are not yet calculated on the cut-off date, operators publish the expected level derived from the revenue cap.
Grid & low voltage 31 October 2026Grid expansion plan under section 14d EnWG: first filing
Distribution grid operators submit the grid expansion plan to the Bundesnetzagentur for the first time, then every two years. The congestion analysis with measures is mandatory.
Grid & low voltage 2 December 2026EU AI Act: labelling duty extends to AI already in use
The four-month transition period ends. Generative AI systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 must mark their output in machine-readable form.
IT architecture, data & AI End of 2026 plannedAgNeS: framework ruling on electricity grid charges
Time-variable charges, capacity prices and feed-in charges are set; follow-up rulings 2027, effect from 2029.
Flexibility, storage & grid charges 31 December 2026Heating costs ordinance: retrofit remote reading
All heat and hot water meters must be remotely readable; FFVAV requires the same for suppliers.
Smart metering, SMGW & §14a 31 December 2026MsbG: functional control with core processes
Default metering operators must offer §14a control technically. Penalty payments against rollout laggards have been running since March 2026.
Smart metering, SMGW & §14aTHE SITUATION
The deadlines are fixed. The projects behind them grow apart.
Deadline pressure on its own would be manageable. It gets hard because the projects behind it start in different departments and their dependencies never meet in one place.
Except that a municipal utility never holds just one market role. Distribution system operator, metering point operator, supplier, heat network operator, often several of them under one roof, each with its own deadlines, its own processes and its own systems. That is where projects drift apart, long before anyone calls it a delivery problem. 15 market roles at a glance.
And under regulatory pressure each role spawns its own initiatives, which hang together. The rollout needs market communication, §14a needs billing, the grid connection portal needs master data from both. Run in different parts of the business, against different deadlines. Portfolio leadership means seeing those dependencies in one place and deciding the order.
- Strategy consulting Draws the target picture and is gone before the first requirement is written.
- A systems integrator Delivers the system it sells. It does not decide the sequence of the other six initiatives.
- Internal capacity Knows the house and the people, but already holds a full-time job. And rarely the standing to contradict a corporate vendor in an architecture dispute.
- An AI tool Does not solve it either. The bottleneck is not the model, it is data, process and sign-off.
What is missing is someone who decides the sequence across all the initiatives, then delivers against it.
SERVICES
What innobu delivers
Four services. Bookable on their own, and they interlock.
Interim programme and portfolio lead
innobu steers the grid and metering portfolio and delivers inside it: PMO, dependency maps, steering committee.
More on programme leadership →Enterprise architecture and target picture
IS-U replacement, IT/OT, data architecture: the target picture that holds the programmes together.
More on architecture →Regulatory implementation
§14a, MsbG, NIS2, MaKo: law and rulings translated into requirements, with a date.
More on regulation →Prototype and AI
Working code in days instead of a feasibility study in months. AI from pilot to regular operation, with a governance that stands up to the regulator.
More on prototyping and AI →At the large firms the partner pitches and the juniors deliver. At innobu the person who pitches is the same one who delivers. When a programme needs more hands, a curated partner network joins, not a team you have to brief first.
REFERENCE
Reference: energy and grid across a multi-utility
innobu has run the external portfolio and programme lead in the grid division of a multi-utility since 2024: electricity, district heating, water and fibre in one portfolio. Around 40 initiatives, a planning horizon to 2030, one decision path. The work does not stop at the edge of the grid, it reaches into the core systems of the business. The person who pitches at innobu is the one who runs the mandate.
- Grid portfolio Around 40 initiatives across four utilities, a horizon to 2030. Sequence and dependencies are decided in one place.
- §14a EnWG Controllable loads from grid operations through to billing, across every process they touch.
- Smart meter rollout iMSys across electricity, district heating and water: one rollout instead of three separate projects.
- Customer and grid connection portal One application path for all four utilities including fibre, from concept into build-out.
- Core and HR systems Introducing SAP SuccessFactors, preparing the S/4HANA migration. The mandate does not stop at the division boundary.
- Architecture and governance Program office, roadmap and decision paths built. The initiatives run inside them.
ORIGIN
Controllable loads are not a new subject
Measure, order, control. The discipline is older than the mandate. What sorts a grid portfolio today started on a factory floor.
from 2010 · measure
Compressed-air network, factory floor
Before municipal utilities were the clients, the subject was compressed air: electrically generated, one of the most expensive forms of energy in a plant. Consumption, flow, leakage, and the question of which reading a plant can actually trust. The controllable load on that site was a compressor.
What is not measured cannot be controlled.
In a compressed-air network exactly as in a distribution grid.
since 2024 · control
Low voltage in the distribution grid
In between lie years in programmes and portfolios in other sectors, where leadership work turned into method: order. The same rule is now written into §14a EnWG, the German grid-connection rule for controllable loads: the grid operator may only intervene once it has measured the bottleneck. The load is a heat pump, a wallbox or a battery now. Nothing about the job has changed except the nameplate. Where this comes from.
FOCUS AREAS
Eight topic fields under one umbrella
Eight fields innobu works in for municipal utilities, grid and metering operators, from the deadline to a system that runs.
Grid & low voltage
Digital secondary substations, grid state, redispatch, grid connection.
View topics →Smart metering, SMGW & §14a
From rollout via gateway and control box to grid-oriented control.
View topics →Market communication & market processes
MaKo releases, LFW24, MaBiS hub, balancing, master data.
View topics →Flexibility, storage & grid charges
MiSpeL, AgNeS, time-variable charges, energy sharing, direct marketing.
View topics →Heat & gas network transformation
Heat planning, district heating twin, gas network transformation plan.
View topics →Portals & customer processes
Grid connection portal, feed-in processes, customer portal, charging infrastructure.
View topics →Cybersecurity & resilience
NIS2, KRITIS umbrella act, IT security catalogue, OT security.
View topics →IT architecture, data & AI
IS-U replacement, Clean Core, data spaces, AI in grid operations, EU AI Act.
View topics →KNOWLEDGE HUB
Latest energy insights
Current analyses of deadlines, rulings and systems of the German energy transition, written for utilities, grid operators and metering operators.
LET'S COLLABORATE
Put our experience to work
One conversation about your programme in the grid, in metering or in market processes: which deadline is pressing, where it is stuck, what comes next.