New tool brings more transparency, lower costs, and faster grid connections for project developers and utilities
Cologne, 10.12.2025 – The current boom in battery storage projects and data centers is leading to a flood of grid connection requests that many grid operators are struggling to process. This is also slowing down projects for PV parks and charging infrastructure and tying up financial and human resources on both the project developer and grid operator sides. Grid connection has thus become a bottleneck for the energy transition. While project developers lack planning certainty and find it difficult to assess whether a site can be connected in a technically and economically viable way, grid operators are burdened with incomplete and speculative requests.
To simplify this complex and often opaque process for both sides, envelio, Europe’s leading provider of smart grid software, has developed the “Grid Connection Navigator.” Using an interactive grid capacity map, project developers can independently identify available grid capacities, locate suitable sites, and calculate the expected costs of a grid connection. The tool is accessible via a self-service area on the grid operator’s website. In return, grid operators benefit from significantly higher-quality connection requests and reduced effort caused by speculative projects.
Dr. Simon Koopmann, co-founder and CEO of envelio, explains: “Grid connection planning for, for example, ground-mounted PV systems or battery storage facilities must not fail due to intransparent and lengthy processes. Anyone looking to connect such an installation should have easy access to all the information required for a binding grid connection request. At the same time, grid operators should be relieved by having to process only qualified and genuinely feasible requests. With the Grid Connection Navigator, we have developed a solution that significantly simplifies and increases transparency in the first step of connection planning. Both sides benefit, and this ultimately supports the energy transition.”
The “Grid Connection Navigator” complements the existing apps “Connection Request” and “Online Connection Check,” all of which are part of envelio’s Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP). Together, these three applications cover the entire process from initial planning and grid compatibility assessment through to grid connection.
Only last year, envelio entered the US market with its Intelligent Grid Platform, Europe’s leading smart grid software. The fact that a major utility from New England is now, less than a year later, the first customer worldwide to use the Grid Connection Navigator in live operation underlines envelio’s successful market entry in the US. Other grid operators in the US and Europe have already expressed interest. With immediate effect, European grid operators can also optimize their grid connection processes using the Grid Connection Navigator.
Further information and details about the IGP and the Grid Connection Navigator can be found here.