Abuse proceedings against EnBW in the balancing energy sector discontinued

The Bundeskartellamt has discontinued the abuse proceedings instituted at the end of October 2001 against EnBW Transportnetze AG (EnBW) on suspicion of charging their competitors inappropriate fees for balancing energy. EnBW has stated that it will introduce a tender system for the procurement of balancing energy by 1 August 2002 and invoice network users in the same way as practised for a long time by RWE and E.ON. At the same time EnBW will use an accounting system for balancing energy designed to remedy to a large degree the negative effects of its previous accounting system.  This will be applied retrospectively to 1 February 2000 and during the transitional period to the end of July 2002.

The parallel proceedings against the other grid companies, the three companies of the enterprise group in foundation “Vattenfall Europe” (Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke AG, HEW, Bewag AG, Veag AG) will be continued. The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Ulf Böge, stated: “There are still grounds for suspicion that HEW, Bewag and Veag are hindering competitors by charging inappropriate and in some cases fictitious fees for balancing energy. Nor have the three transmission network operators of the Vattenfall Europe Group implemented partial improvements to their accounting systems for balancing energy in accordance with the Associations’ Agreement on Electricity II (VV Strom II) which were required for implementation by 1 January 2002. I assume that the Vattenfall concern will also take account of the Bundeskartellamt’s concerns and quickly install a system for balancing energy in line with the principles of competition."

Keyword “Balancing Energy”As energy cannot be stored the difference between the amount of electricity fed in and the actual amount of electricity used by the customer must be balanced out on a short-term basis (so-called balancing or regulating energy).  As network operators, each one of the six German grid companies fulfils this task within its respective balancing area by connecting or disconnecting power plant capacities at short notice. Each network operator has a unique position in the procurement and supply of this balancing energy. In contrast to the large grid companies, newcomers such as the appellant LichtBlick - die Zukunft der Energie GmbH, Hamburg” (LichtBlick) are in a less favourable position to balance an unplanned rise or fall in customer demand due to their smaller clientele and therefore require more balancing energy.  They are likely to be heavily burdened with unreasonable fees charged for the balancing energy they require.