How to Review a Grid Connection Offer From RTE or Enedis

A grid connection offer arrives as a formal document — a Proposition Technique et Financière (PTF), issued by RTE or Enedis after your feasibility study. It has a letterhead, a reference number, a capacity figure, a date, a price. It reads like a done deal. In practice, it is the start of a negotiation, not the end of one — and several of its most important numbers are more provisional than they look.

WHAT A CONNECTION OFFER ACTUALLY CONTAINS

A PTF typically sets out: the connection point (which substation, at which voltage level), the capacity granted, an indicative works schedule, a cost estimate for the connection works, and a validity period during which you must accept the offer before it expires. Under RTE's own process, this document is issued within three months of a complete application file — the third of five stages in the standard connection procedure.

FIVE THINGS TO VERIFY BEFORE YOU TRUST THE TIMELINE

1. Is the capacity confirmed, or provisional pending a detailed study? Some offers grant capacity subject to the outcome of a more detailed technical study still to come. The headline number in the PTF is not always the number you will actually receive.

2. Does the timeline depend on network reinforcement works that haven't started? If your connection requires upstream works on the transmission or distribution network — a new substation bay, a reinforced line — the PTF's stated timeline often assumes those works proceed on schedule. They frequently don't.

3. What is the substation's real available capacity, not its theoretical capacity? A substation shown as having headroom on a public network map can already be substantially reserved for other projects ahead of yours in the queue. The PTF reflects what was available when it was issued — not necessarily what remains available when you sign.

4. Is the cost estimate final, or subject to revision after detailed design? Connection cost estimates in a PTF are frequently indicative, refined once detailed engineering studies are completed post-signature. Treating the initial figure as a hard cap is a common and costly mistake.

5. What happens if you don't sign within the validity window? PTFs expire. If your investment decision, financing, or permitting timeline runs longer than the offer's validity period, you may need to re-enter the queue — potentially behind projects that were behind you originally.

RED FLAGS THAT WARRANT A SECOND LOOK

A few patterns are worth treating as prompts for independent review rather than acceptance at face value: a commissioning date more than a year or two out with no interim milestones specified; a capacity figure described as "indicative" rather than "confirmed"; connection costs that seem unusually low relative to comparable projects at the same voltage level; or a project timeline that assumes reinforcement works with no public evidence they are underway.

WHY THIS IS HARDER TO DO ALONE THAN IT LOOKS

None of this requires the offer to be wrong or misleading — grid operators issue PTFs in good faith, based on the best information available at the time. The difficulty is that a PTF is a snapshot, not a guarantee, and reading it correctly requires knowing what typically changes between issuance and energization, market by market. That is what an independent grid connection review is for: not re-doing RTE's or Enedis's work, but stress-testing the assumptions behind the numbers before an investment committee treats them as fixed.