BEG EM, in force since 21 July 2026
Staying eligible for subsidies in Germany
Two new minimum requirements decide whether a heat pump qualifies for German subsidies. Neither has anything to do with efficiency, noise or seasonal performance. Both are digitalisation requirements.
What this is about
On 17 July 2026 the German BAFA reissued the federal subsidy for efficient buildings, individual measures (BEG EM). It has applied since 21 July 2026 and runs to 31 December 2030. There is no grandfathering and no transition period.
For manufacturers that means a device which is technically sound and meets every energy figure can have fallen out of the subsidy since July. And without the subsidy, hardly a heat pump sells in Germany at present.
The two requirements
Metered capture and display
All energy consumed and all heat produced by a subsidised heat generator must be captured by measurement. For that, the heating system needs an energy consumption and efficiency display.
The decisive word is metered. Values an app derives from controller variables or estimates by calculation do not satisfy the requirement. What is required are real meters, electrical and thermal, and a display the operator can see.
Grid and system compatibility
A digital, interoperable interface for grid oriented control under section 14a EnWG is required. It must transmit status and feedback information, be connectable to a smart metering system and fit into energy management systems.
From 1 July 2027 it must use the EEBUS format under VDE-AR-E 2829-6.
Here too the wording is the crux. A volt free contact through which the grid operator blocks the heat pump is not an interoperable interface. The return channel is missing. Relay technology, as fitted in almost every device today, therefore falls out of the subsidy.
Why this is not a controller matter
The obvious reaction is to wait for the controller manufacturer. That is the most expensive route, for three reasons.
It hits every controller generation separately. With four controller families in the portfolio you need four solutions, four schedules and four negotiations. The oldest controller will never get one, and that is precisely the one most often in the field.
The date is not yours. 1 July 2027 is fixed. Whether a controller manufacturer delivers by then is their decision, not yours. You carry the risk, they do not.
It does not belong in the controller anyway. Reading meters, carrying energy quantities over years, rendering a display, speaking a protocol outwards: that is gateway work. A heating controller is not built for it and should not be. Its job is control, and it should keep it.
The BEG EM requirements all sit above the controller. That is exactly where HVACloud starts.
What HVACloud brings to it
| Requirement | What HVACloud contributes | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Capture meters by measurement | Heat and electricity meters over M-Bus and Modbus, independent of the controller and its manufacturer | in the field |
| Carry energy quantities | History over years, analysable per plant and across the whole fleet | in the field |
| Efficiency display | Screens for touch panel, browser and app, assembled without programming | in the field |
| Interoperable interface | An open interface outwards, the same one for every connected controller generation | in the field |
| EEBUS under VDE-AR-E 2829-6 | as a built in protocol driver, like the other sixteen | in the field, ahead of the deadline |
The point behind the table is uniformity. The gateway speaks the field protocol of the respective controller downwards and the same thing for all of them upwards. A requirement solved at the gateway is therefore solved for the entire fleet, for the controller from 2012 as much as for the one from 2027.
That is the difference between one solution per product line and one solution.
Which protocols are built in today is under Connectivity. What the interface offers the grid operator is under Grid services.
The installed base is the real lever
New devices can be designed. The problem is the plants already in the field that will stay there for years.
A gateway in the cabinet can be retrofitted to an existing plant in one service visit. The controller is untouched, the type approval is untouched, control stays where responsibility for it lies. What is added is the measurement, the display and the interface outwards.
A plant that falls out of the subsidy becomes one that meets it, without replacing the device.
The deadlines
| Date | What applies |
|---|---|
| 21.07.2026 | The revised BEG EM is in force. Metering and the section 14a interface are preconditions. |
| Q1 2027 | Value creation bonus of 15 percentage points for Union origin. |
| 01.07.2027 | The interface must work in EEBUS format under VDE-AR-E 2829-6. |
| 01.01.2028 | Only natural refrigerants remain eligible. |
Further points in the revision that shift the market: only existing buildings are subsidised, and replacing one renewable system with another is only subsidised if the old one was installed before 1 January 2008.
The second reason to do the same thing
The Cyber Resilience Act applies from December 2027. Among other things it requires manufacturers to provide a software bill of materials, secure updates across a committed support period, a route for reporting vulnerabilities and notification to CSIRT and ENISA within 24 hours. A manufacturer cloud expressly falls under it.
Whoever solves the subsidy requirements across four foreign clouds then has these obligations four times, in four other companies, on four schedules.
Whoever solves them on their own platform has them once.
It is the same route, for two independent reasons. What the CRA requires in detail, what the platform contributes and what remains the manufacturer’s duty is under Cyber Resilience Act.
What you can do now
Both requirements can be checked in a few days. We look at one of your plants and show which meters are captured, what the display looks like and what the interface delivers outwards. That needs no project and no controller replacement, just a gateway and an appointment.
21 September 2026