The StromVKG, Germany's electricity capacity-market law, goes to a public expert Anhoerung (hearing) at the Paul-Loebe-Haus on 24 June1. A capacity market pays plants to be available rather than for the power they sell, the instrument Germany is using to keep dispatchable gas capacity on the system as renewables grow.
The Greens motion 21/6369 demands technology-neutral auction criteria and clarity on how the levy is financed, carrying forward the hydrogen-conversion push the group raised in committee on 17 June. The Federal Cartel Office, Germany's competition authority, has flagged market-concentration concerns in the design. The bill reached this stage after the Bundestag's first reading and committee referral advanced it under accelerated procedure.
The first 4.5 GW long-duration auction is targeted for 1 September, a second 4.5 GW for 8 December, with a ten-hour continuous-output rule that excludes batteries from the opening tranche. That rule is the design choice with the sharpest market consequence: it hands the first auctions to long-duration thermal plant and shuts storage out of the initial capacity payments.
The hearing is where the 1 September date either holds or slips. The timing connects directly to the spark: CCGTs that have just turned profitable to run are the same plants the capacity auctions are meant to underwrite, so any delay leaves their forward economics resting on the spread alone.
