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.

Discuss your project Deadline calendar 2026/27

Architecture The system that carries the energy transition. Target picture, Clean Core, IS-U replacement, data spaces.
Portfolio Programme and portfolio under one lead. Prioritisation, steering, vendors, budget.
Regulation Translated into a system that runs. §14a, MsbG, MaKo, NIS2, EU AI Act.

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.

14 September 2026

Gas WACC: end of the consultation on the rate of return

Gas distribution grid operators can still comment on the draft ruling on the flat rate of return. The 3.76 percent rate carries the revenue caps of the fifth gas regulatory period from 2028.

Grid & low voltage 18 September 2026

AgNeS: 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 2026

Grid development scenarios 2027: end of the consultation

Distribution grid operators and municipal utilities can comment on the draft electricity and gas/hydrogen scenarios. These assumptions frame the grid development plan and with it the hydrogen volumes that reach their own gas networks.

Grid & low voltage 1 October 2026

MaKo 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 2026

MiSpeL: 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 2026

WiM Gas 2.0 applies

Digitalised metering switch processes for gas, new message formats.

Market communication & market processes

Tool All deadlines in the calendar

THE 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.

SERVICES

What innobu delivers

Four services. Bookable on their own, and they interlock.

Steering

Interim programme and portfolio lead

One senior steers the grid and metering portfolio and delivers in it: PMO, dependency maps, steering committee.

Enterprise architecture and target picture

IS-U replacement, IT/OT, data architecture: the target picture that holds the programmes together.

Regulatory implementation

§14a, MsbG, NIS2, MaKo: law and rulings translated into requirements, with a date.

Prototype and AI

Working code in days, AI in grid operations from pilot to regular operation, with a governance that stands up to the regulator.

Reference: Energy and grid, municipal utility in northern Germany

External portfolio and program lead in the grid division of a municipal utility in northern Germany, ongoing since 2024. Across all utilities: electricity, district heating, water and fibre. Around 40 initiatives under one steering structure, and the work reaches into HR and core enterprise systems.

Grid portfolio Built and runs the 2025 to 2030 program and portfolio steering.
§14a EnWG Steering program with five sub-projects, from scoping to billing.
Smart meter rollout iMSys across electricity, district heating and water, as program lead.
Customer and grid connection portal Across utilities including fibre, from concept to live phase 3.
Architecture and governance Program office, roadmap, decision paths established.

ORIGIN

Controllable loads are not a new subject

The discipline is older than the mandate. What sorts a grid portfolio today started on a factory floor.

Before municipal utilities were the clients, the subject was compressed air: consumption, flow, leakage, and the question of which reading a plant can actually trust. What is not measured cannot be controlled, in a compressed-air network as in a distribution grid. That 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 controllable load was called a compressor back then. The full track record.

A municipal utility is never just one market role, but several. Distribution system operator, metering point operator, supplier, heat network operator, often under one roof. Each role brings its own deadlines, its own processes and its own systems. These seams are where projects drift apart. 15 market roles at a glance.

Regulatory pressure creates separate initiatives in every department, and they hang together. The rollout needs market communication, §14a needs billing, the grid connection portal needs master data from both. They are run in different parts of the business, against different deadlines. Portfolio leadership means seeing those dependencies in one place and deciding the order.

FOCUS AREAS