Rul­ing Cham­ber 7

Ruling Chamber 7’s tasks and activities focus on the following:

• balancing and conversion,
• unbundling and certification,
• performing tasks under the “Gas Storage Act”,
• capacity management,
• supplier switching and metering,
• regulation of LNG facilities,
• exemption from regulation,
• network connection,
• monitoring of transparency requirements.

The ruling chamber has extensive powers to enforce its decisions in the following types of proceedings:

• determination and reference offer proceedings,
• approval and certification proceedings,
• abuse proceedings (sections 30 and 31 of the German Energy Industry Act – EnWG),
• supervisory proceedings (section 65 EnWG),
• regulatory offence proceedings (section 95 EnWG).

The ruling chamber carries out various informal procedures in addition to these formal proceedings. The informal procedures range from receiving obligatory reports about the exchange of information, for example with market participants, associations and other authorities, and discussing general or specific technical and legal questions to issuing specific requests for action to be taken or abstained from prior to formal proceedings.