Connecting to the electricity grid, step by step

A grid connection is the procedure through which a consumption or generation site is tied, technically and contractually, to the public electricity network. The procedure is regulated by ANRE and applies in the same way to an industrial consumer, a photovoltaic park, a storage system or a capacity increase on an existing site.

The process is not a single formality but a chain of documents in which each piece conditions the next: the request opens the file, the connection solution substantiates the connection permit, the permit opens the connection contract, the contract opens construction, and the connection certificate closes the process.

PowerGrid Solution enters this chain as an ANRE-attested designer: it produces the solution study, the impact study where one is required, the technical design and the permitting documentation, then supports the project through to commissioning. Permits and approvals remain, in every case, with the network operator.

The connection request is filed by the client with the network operator covering the area of the site. The operator checks the request and the documents before moving on to setting the connection solution.

The connection solution is set on one of two paths, and the path changes both the content of the file and the length of the stage. ANRE's official documents call them the solution sheet and the solution study.

The solution sheet is used in straightforward cases, where the connection point and the works follow directly from the data in the request. The solution study is used when several plausible technical alternatives exist and have to be compared; in that case at least two technically and economically optimal solutions are determined and the user selects one of them.

The solution study is the document an ANRE-attested designer works on. The network is modelled and the steady-state regime, the short-circuit currents, the voltage drops and the loading are calculated, then the alternatives are compared technically and economically, including any reinforcement works.

For large capacities, or for connections at 110 kV, 220 kV and 400 kV, a grid impact study may also be required in parallel.

Once the connection permit is issued, the connection contract is signed with the network operator. The ATR has a validity period, and the request to sign the connection contract is filed before it expires; the exact deadlines are the ones in the ANRE documents linked below.

What follows, in order: the reinforcement works upstream of the connection point, if the solution called for them; the design and construction of the connection installation; the filing of the utilisation installation file; the acceptance and commissioning of the connection installation; and finally the issuing of the connection certificate and final energisation.

The technical design is the piece that turns the approved solution into an executable set: technical report, electrical diagrams, sizing calculations, drawings, installation details and bills of quantities.

The process has clear stages, but the length of each stage depends on the network operator, the site, the voltage level and the complexity of the solution. PowerGrid Solution does not publish deadlines of its own, because a deadline written here would be less accurate than the one in the regulation.

The per-stage deadlines are set in the ANRE regulation and differ between the two variants of the process: the one where the user contracts the connection works with an ANRE-attested economic operator, and the one where the network operator contracts them. They also differ for prosumers, who follow a separate ANRE order. The official documents are linked below and carry the deadline for each step.

The correct wording for a project schedule is this: the deadlines are confirmed with the network operator when the request is filed, and the design work can be estimated once the site data is available.

The base path stays the same, but four situations change it in practice.