Small generation installations: the CRE consults on a common access contract

On 29 July 2026, the French Energy Regulatory Commission launched a public consultation on the common model contract for access to and operation on the public electricity distribution grid applicable to generation installations with a capacity below 36 kVA in continental mainland France.

This threshold corresponds very largely to the decentralised generation fleet of households and small businesses: rooftop photovoltaic installations, in full or partial self-consumption, with or without export of surplus.

This segment has grown rapidly. The number of generators connected to the distribution grid is now counted in the hundreds of thousands, a large majority of them self-consumers.

Harmonising the access contract aims to provide legal certainty in the relationship between these generators and grid operators, by clarifying the rights and obligations of each party: export conditions, operating obligations, metering arrangements and cases of curtailment.

A consistent contractual framework reduces the administrative friction that weighs, across a portfolio of sites, on the development of self-consumption.