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.
30 minutes on your market role and your next deadline. With the founder, no sales loop.
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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 23 September 2026.
Grid 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 Power gridGas grid 1 October 2026MaKo format release, notice no. 56
25 AHB and MIG versions covering 13 EDIFACT message types, AS4 profile 1.2 and the AS4 transport rules 2.6 become binding. Test plan, exception handling and fallback scenarios need to be in place.
Market communication & market processes Power gridGas gridMeteringSupplier 1 October 2026 plannedMiSpeL: ruling on market integration of storage and charging points
The Federal Network Agency plans to publish the ruling with a demarcation option and a flat-rate option for storage and charging points in mixed use. It sets how volumes are separated for EEG support and levy privileges.
Flexibility, storage & grid charges Power gridMeteringSupplier 1 October 2026WiM Gas 2.0 applies
Digitalised metering switch processes for gas, new message formats.
Market communication & market processes Gas gridMetering 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 Power gridGas gridSupplier 31 October 2026Grid expansion plan under section 14d EnWG: first filing
Distribution system operators with 100,000 or more customers submit their first grid expansion plan to the Federal Network Agency, then every two years by 31 October. Smaller operators are covered only if they curtailed more than 3 percent of wind or solar output in each of the two previous years.
Grid & low voltage Power grid 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 Company-wide 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 Power gridSupplier 31 December 2026Heating costs ordinance: retrofit remote reading
Heat suppliers retrofit or replace meters installed before 5 October 2021 that cannot be read remotely (FFVAV). Building owners do the same for heat and hot water meters and heat cost allocators (Heating Costs Ordinance).
Smart metering, SMGW & §14a Heat networkCompany-wide 31 December 2026 planned§14a control: target for working control
Under the four-stage approach of Technical Study 2.0, working control with core processes for first use cases is due by the end of 2026. This is a target, not a statutory MsbG deadline.
Smart metering, SMGW & §14a Power gridMetering 31 December 2026Smart meter rollout: 90 percent of the installation cases since February 2025
By the end of 2026 default metering point operators must have completed at least 90 percent of the metering points that have fallen due since 25 February 2025. The Bundesnetzagentur collects progress twice a year and has been running supervisory proceedings against laggards since March 2026.
Smart metering, SMGW & §14a Metering 31 December 2026WPG §32: decarbonisation roadmap for heat networks
Operators of existing heat networks submit the roadmap: 30 percent renewable by 2030, 80 percent by 2040.
Heat & gas network transformation Heat networkWhich of these deadlines hits your programme? Book an implementation check →
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.
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.
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 governance that plans for the EU AI Act and BNetzA supervision from day one.
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.
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
Thirty minutes on your programme in the grid, in metering or in market processes: which deadline is pressing, which systems hang off it, what comes next. If you want, a one-page implementation map afterwards.
Niels Schuldt, founder. You talk to me. If a project follows, I work on it myself. Direct: info@innobu.com