Germany sets 29 December bid date for its second capacity auction

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The Bundesnetzagentur has published the terms of Germany's second long-term capacity auction. Bids are due on 29 December 2026 for a volume of 3,840 MW of reduced capacity (rMW). The ceiling is unchanged from the first round at 244,000 EUR per MW of reduced capacity per year. Awards carry a 15-year commitment period.

Two dates to keep apart

The bid date is 29 December. Bidders must complete authentication by 22 December, one week earlier. Bids are accepted electronically only, through the regulator's closed user group platform. Teams planning around the end of the year should work to the earlier date.

A smaller volume after the first round

The first round, with a bid date of 8 September, called 4,500 rMW. It awarded around 5,160 rMW across 11 bids, because the bid that first crossed the volume line was still awarded. The volume-weighted average came in at 155,296 EUR per rMW a year.

The second round offers 3,840 rMW. Taken together, the two 2026 rounds come to around 9,000 rMW.

Rules that matter for battery bidders

Pool bids are allowed only if every unit in the pool belongs to the same technology class. A pool's reduction factor is the average of its units' factors, weighted by nominal capacity. For battery storage, units in one pool may carry different reduction factors because of their maximum discharge duration, which the regulator explicitly allows. Controllable loads and small-unit pools are not eligible for the long-term auctions.

Each bid needs a bid security of 15% of the ceiling multiplied by the reduced capacity bid, which works out at 36,600 EUR per rMW, plus a fee of 956 EUR per bid. The security is sized on the ceiling rather than on the bid value, so a 50 rMW pool posts 1.83 million EUR before the bid date.

Successful bidders then post a completion security with the responsible transmission system operator by the 20th working day after the award. It equals the non-completion penalty, which is 1.5 times the bid value multiplied by the reduced capacity bid.

What it means for storage

The first round gave the market a published benchmark of 155,296 EUR per rMW a year, well inside the 244,000 EUR ceiling. Battery projects that did not clear in September, or were not ready to bid, now have a second entry point before the year closes, with the same ceiling and the same commitment length.

A 15-year capacity payment is one revenue line among several. For a German BESS asset, the case still rests on how it stacks with balancing, ancillary services, tolling or a PPA. SEMT brings PPA, balancing and ancillary prices across Europe into one place, so that comparison can be run on current market data. You can sign up at https://synertics.io/signup/ or write to info@synertics.io if you would like to discuss it in more detail.