Germany · Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz (GModG)
GModG: the 70 kW rule, met with real data.
In July 2026 the Gebäudeenergiegesetz was rewritten and renamed the Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz. For commercial portfolios the biggest change is §56: the building automation threshold drops from 290 kW to 70 kW, with a deadline of December 31, 2029. Rhino delivers the audit-grade utility data that obligation runs on.
What happened to the GEG
The GModG (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz) is the law that rewrote and renamed the Gebäudeenergiegesetz. It was signed on July 23, 2026, published in the Bundesgesetzblatt on July 28, and its core provisions took effect on July 29, 2026. It remains Germany's transposition of the EU EPBD. If you were tracking the GEG, this is the same law under a new name, with substantially new content.
Scope and applicability
Who the 70 kW rule applies to.
§56 GModG has been in force since July 29, 2026. It reaches both new builds and existing stock, and the threshold change pulls in a large share of the German commercial portfolio that sat outside the old rule.
At a glance
70 kW
Rated output of the heating, air conditioning, or combined ventilation system. Above this, a non-residential building needs a building automation and control system. The old threshold was 290 kW.
Dec 31, 2029
The deadline to have a compliant system in place. The obligation itself already exists: the clock is running, not waiting.
Jan 2027
Non-residential energy certificates move to an A to G scale, and the consumption-based Verbrauchsausweis is no longer accepted on sale or lease.
Office buildings
At 70 kW the rule no longer catches only large headquarters. Mid-sized offices, single-tenant buildings, and older stock with oversized plant now sit in scope alongside the towers.
Logistics and industrial buildings
Warehouses, distribution centers, and production sites. Large-footprint assets crossed 290 kW easily, but at 70 kW even modestly heated logistics space and cold storage support plant come into scope.
Retail, hospitality, and healthcare
Shopping centers, supermarkets, hotels, and clinics. Residential buildings stay outside §56, though the certificate and heating rules elsewhere in the GModG still reach them.
Educational and public buildings
Schools, universities, and government buildings. Public owners face a second deadline too: new publicly owned, authority-used buildings must be zero-emission from January 2028.
Is your building in scope?
If your non-residential building in Germany has plant above 70 kW, §56 already applies and 2029 is the deadline. Talk to us about the data side of it.
The obligations
What the GModG asks of commercial buildings.
Four obligations matter for non-residential portfolios. The first one, building automation, is the one that depends on continuous utility data, and it is the one with the nearest deadline.
Building automation (§56)
Non-residential buildings with plant above 70 kW must run a building automation and control system by December 31, 2029. It has to monitor, log, and analyze consumption continuously and expose the data through an open interface. Covered in detail below.
Energy certificates from 2027
From January 1, 2027 non-residential buildings get their own A to G efficiency scale, and only the calculated Bedarfsausweis is accepted on sale or lease. Certificates must be issued digitally and machine-readable. Residential keeps the A+ to H scale.
Minimum standards (§§40 and 41)
Existing non-residential buildings must stay under 3.5 times the reference building from 2030, and 2.95 times from 2033. In practice that retires efficiency class G in 2030 and class F in 2033, with wide exemptions for newer and renewably heated stock.
Heating and zero-emission new builds
The 65% renewable heating rule and the operating bans on old boilers are gone. New fossil heating instead faces a rising minimum share of climate-neutral fuels from 2029. All new buildings must be zero-emission from 2030.
§56 in focus
The building automation rule, in detail.
§56 replaces §71a of the old GEG and is the German counterpart to the Dutch GACS obligation, both drawn from the same EPBD article. It sets out six things a building automation and control system has to be able to do.
Monitor every main energy carrier
Continuous monitoring, logging, and analysis of consumption across all main energy carriers and all building technical systems, plus the ability to adjust that consumption. Not a periodic audit: a live record. Heat alone does not satisfy it.
Expose data through an open interface
The data must be reachable through a common, freely configurable interface so that analysis can be carried out independently of any single firm or manufacturer. A closed system that cannot export its own data does not comply.
Benchmark, flag losses, and advise
It must set benchmark values for the building's energy efficiency, detect efficiency losses in the technical systems, inform the operator of possible improvements, and monitor indoor air quality. The air quality limb is new under §56.
New builds, automation grades, and what compliance buys you
Existing buildings above 70 kW need the monitoring functionality above, plus automatic lighting control, by the end of 2029. New builds additionally have to reach a defined automation grade under DIN/TS 18599-11:2025-10: grade C above 70 kW, grade B above 290 kW. There is an upside: a building running a compliant §56 system is exempt from the recurring heating system inspection and the mandatory air conditioning inspection, provided the project documentation evidences it. Missing the obligation is an administrative offense with a fine of up to 5,000 euros per building.
Rhino's role
Rhino delivers the data §56 runs on.
A building automation system needs a complete, continuous, vendor-neutral record of energy use. That is exactly what Rhino produces, across all utilities and every meter.
All main energy carriers, not just heat
§56 asks for consumption across every main energy carrier. Rhino collects electricity, gas, water, and heat at meter level, updated every 15 minutes. Meters map to systems, zones, and floors, so consumption breaks down the way the rule expects.
An open interface, by design
The open, freely configurable interface §56 demands is not something Rhino bolts on. All metered data is reachable through the Utility Data API and exportable to CSV, so your analysis is never locked to one manufacturer.
Efficiency loss detection with alerts
Rhino's alarms flag consumption that drifts from expected patterns and notify the operator by email or in-platform alert. Deviations are logged with timestamps, which is what turns "detect efficiency losses" into something you can evidence.
Benchmarks and periodic reports
Rhino generates automated reports on a schedule you set, with consumption per carrier, period-over-period comparisons, and efficiency trends. The same data supports the benchmark values §56 asks for and the energy certificate.
The history §41 will ask you to produce
From 2030 the authority can require proof that a building meets the minimum standard. All metered data is stored in Rhino's cloud with no retention limit during your subscription, so the evidence is already there rather than reconstructed from invoices.
How Rhino connects to your building
Software-only: for buildings with smart meters, Rhino connects via the meter's data port. No extra hardware, active within days.
Own hardware: for older gas, water, or heat meters without a digital connection, Rhino installs compact access points alongside the existing meter. No meter replacement.
WMBus / BACnet / Modbus: for buildings with an existing BMS or wireless meter network, Rhino reads the signal directly, without additional hardware.
Low CAPEX: Rhino connects to what is already installed. No rewiring, no rip-and-replace. That matters more at 70 kW, where the buildings newly in scope are smaller and the budget per asset is tighter.
Common questions
GModG compliance, answered.
The GModG (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz) is the law that rewrote and renamed the Gebäudeenergiegesetz in July 2026. It was published in the Bundesgesetzblatt on July 28, 2026 and its core provisions took effect on July 29. It remains Germany's transposition of the EU EPBD. The GEG has not disappeared into a separate statute: this is the same body of law, renamed and substantially rewritten. For commercial portfolios the significant changes are the building automation threshold dropping to 70 kW, a new A to G certificate scale for non-residential buildings from 2027, minimum energy performance standards from 2030, and the removal of the 65% renewable heating requirement.
§56 requires non-residential buildings with heating, air conditioning, or combined ventilation plant above 70 kW rated output to run a building automation and control system by the end of December 31, 2029, unless that is technically impossible or economically unreasonable. The system must continuously monitor, log, and analyze consumption across all main energy carriers, make the data available through a common and freely configurable interface so analysis is not tied to one manufacturer, set efficiency benchmarks, detect efficiency losses, advise the operator on improvements, and monitor indoor air quality. Buildings above 70 kW also need automatic lighting control by the same date. §56 replaced §71a of the old GEG, which applied at 290 kW.
Both. The 70 kW threshold and the December 31, 2029 deadline apply to existing non-residential buildings as well as new ones, which is what makes this change significant for standing portfolios rather than only for development pipelines. The difference is that new builds carry an extra requirement: they must reach a defined automation grade under DIN/TS 18599-11:2025-10, grade C above 70 kW and grade B above 290 kW, along with technical commissioning management. Existing buildings need the monitoring functionality and the lighting control, but no automation grade. We recommend confirming building-specific applicability with your energy advisor.
They are two national versions of the same rule. Both §56 in Germany and GACS in the Netherlands implement the building automation requirement in the EPBD. The technical obligations are close to identical: continuous monitoring, efficiency benchmarking, and interoperable communication. The thresholds now differ, which is the practical trap for cross-border portfolios. GACS still applies from 290 kW in the Netherlands, while Germany moved to 70 kW. If you run assets in both countries, the German threshold is the one that will catch buildings you previously treated as out of scope. The same data foundation covers both.
Rhino delivers the energy monitoring, logging, and analysis layer that §56 requires, and the open interface it demands. It records consumption per carrier at meter and zone level, alerts on efficiency losses, retains full history, and reads P1, WMBus, BACnet, and Modbus systems. Building automation also involves control of the technical systems themselves, which Rhino reads from and reports on rather than actuates, and indoor air quality monitoring, which Rhino covers through its air quality sensors. Most German buildings pair Rhino's data layer with their existing control infrastructure. Missing the obligation is an administrative offense carrying a fine of up to 5,000 euros per building, so we recommend confirming the full compliance picture with your energy advisor.
The threshold moved. Your data should too.
If your non-residential building in Germany has plant above 70 kW, §56 already applies and December 31, 2029 is the deadline. Rhino connects to your existing meters and delivers the continuous, vendor-neutral energy data the rule runs on.
Further reading
From the Rhino blog.
