Graduated planning and approval procedures are common practice and well suited to take into account the complexity of the project and the complexity and diversity of the substantive legal requirements for the required permit. In addition, efforts are made to avoid double or multiple examinations, not just for reasons of speeding up the process. This causes the question of the scope and depth of the examination in the several procedures. To be able to answer this question, a look is needed to the different stage models and the objectives pursued with them to decide for the specific stage planning and approval process which strategy is followed with the stage approach: The strategy of increasing concretization or the strategy of the earlier examination of the main questions. It cannot be a random decision which strategy will be used. In particular the interaction of the vertical levels requires an early layer-related mastering involving all responsible authorities and the project developers as well as a consistent implementation of the course set. This also and especially applies the planning, approval and implementation of the grid expansion projects which are particularly important for the success of the energy transition.