Regulation
§ 14a EnWG: reduce, do not disconnect
Connect a wallbox above 4.2 kW and the grid operator may no longer refuse it. In return it may temporarily reduce your power when the grid requires it, and you pay less in grid fees. What that means in practice depends on whether your connection carries one device or forty.
The bargain the rule offers
Before the rule was recast, a grid operator could refuse or delay a wallbox connection when it saw a risk to the grid. That is no longer possible. In exchange, some of the safety margin that used to come from copper now comes from controllability.
Duty to connect
The controllable device gets connected. Refusal is no longer an option, nor is waiting for a grid upgrade.
Controllability
In return, power must be reducible on request from the grid operator, through control equipment at the connection.
Minimum power
Even during an intervention a minimum stays available — enough to fill a car meaningfully overnight.
Compensation
Reduced grid fees, selectable in modules. Which one pays off depends on your consumption profile and grid area.
The distinction that matters
Throttling one device, or spreading it across a site
A setpoint from the grid operator can be implemented two ways. For a single wallbox both amount to the same thing. With several charge points on one connection they diverge sharply.
Each wallbox throttled on its own
Control acts on every device separately: all are reduced at the same time and by the same amount — including those nobody is using, and the car that has to leave in two hours. The total is right; the distribution is blind.
The site meets the setpoint as a whole
An energy management system takes the setpoint for the whole connection and distributes the remaining power by your rules. Whoever leaves soon gets more; whoever stays until Friday waits. From outside, the operator sees exactly the figure it asked for.
That is the job the aCharge controller is built for. It regulates locally — so also when the internet connection is missing — and logs every intervention with time, setpoint and actual response. How the load management behind it works.
In practice
Who this actually affects
The rule applies to everyone equally. How much it is felt differs a lot, depending on whether your vehicles have time.
Single-family home
One car standing twelve hours overnight. An intervention lengthens the session and nothing more — here the fee reduction is the actual effect.
Apartment building
Many vehicles, plenty of time, a tight connection. Without rule-based distribution everyone notices at once; with it almost nobody does.
Depot and fleet
Fixed departure times do not tolerate blind throttling. Here prioritisation decides whether every vehicle can leave in the morning.
As of August 2026. This page explains the rule; it does not replace an official answer. Which modules your grid operator offers, how it steers and what applies to existing installations in your area is binding only from them.
Frequently asked