Energy
In the field of energy regulation, the Federal Network Agency has been a member of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and the European Regulators’ Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG) since 2004. Information about the work of CEER and ERGEG can be found on their joint website. As an association under Belgium law, the CEER is a platform founded in 2001 by the regulatory authorities for the exchange of all issues that are relevant to all of its members. The ERGEG was set up by Commission Decision 2003/796/EG of 11 November 2003 as a formal advisory committee of the Commission. Both committees support the Commission in consolidating a European single market for electricity and gas and contribute to uniform application of directives 2003/54/EU and 2003/55/EU and regulations 1228/2003 and 1775/2005 in all member states.
The aspired development of regional electricity and gas markets as an intermediate step toward a European single market has been intensified by the ERGEG since 2006 with the so-called "Regional Initiatives". The Federal Network Agency cooperates in four of seven regional initiatives in the electricity sector. Central Western Europe (CWE), Central Eastern Europe (CEE), Northern Europe (NE) and Central Southern Europe (CSE)
As part of the North-West regional initiative, the Federal Network Agency backs the facilitation of cross-border gas trade, in particular between the Netherlands and Germany.
In 2007, the Federal Network Agency was represented in nine electricity-specific working groups of the CEER and ERGEG. The work of the regional initiatives was evaluated in the Electricity Regional Initiative Task Force to ensure the development of compatible solutions. This is of particular interest to Germany as a hub for electricity exchange in Europe. The Electricity Market Task Force deals with compliance with the regulations in the congestion management guidelines and the contents of future studies on balancing energy and the retail customer market. The Electricity Transmission Network Task Force deals with approval processes for the new construction of lines in the various countries as well as with incentives for investment in cross-border infrastructures.
In the gas sector, the Federal Network Agency was represented in twelve working groups in 2007 and was responsible for one working group. Here, its work focused on the development of guidelines for applying the regulations of Article 22 of the Natural Gas Energy Directive 2003/55/EG. The question here is how network providers can apply for exceptions from regulation. Further working groups deal with transparency, access to storage facilities, the secondary market, capacity calculation and Open Season procedures for demand-oriented determination of requirements and allocation of capacities. In 2008 the Federal Network Agency will chair a European working group together with the Belgian regulatory authority (CREG) that is intended to ensure more efficient capacity management in European gas networks. The Agency will be responsible for the issues "capacity allocation" and "congestion management". In addition, it will continue to chair the "Article 22 – Exemption" working group.
In the cross-sector working groups of CEER and ERGEG, the Federal Network Agency supports the interests of consumers on European level. As part of the Unbundling, Reporting & Benchmarking Task Force, an international project on efficiency benchmarking of transmission network providers was prepared with the Federal Network Agency in the chair. The results of this project will be used by the Agency as part of incentive regulation. By cooperating in the consumer-related ERGEG working groups (Customer Focus Group, Customer Protection Task Force, Retail Market Functioning Task Force), the Federal Network Agency actively supports consumer interests at the European level. The working groups deal with issues such as regulating retail prices, formulating a European Charta of energy consumer rights and identifying obstacles when changing suppliers. In 2007 the Federal Network Agency was also involved in the European Commission’s information campaign on the rights of consumers on the single European energy market.
In addition, the Federal Network Agency has been named as the responsible body for regulating the electricity and gas markets for the EU for applying EU Directive 1228/2003 on cross-border electricity trade (section 56 Energy Industry Act (EnWG)). Together with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), the Federal Network Agency attends the European Electricity Regulatory Forum (Florence Forum) and the European Gas Regulatory Forum (Madrid Forum).