De­ter­mi­na­tion pro­ceed­ings RA­MEN

• Consultation on the determinations
• Status at the beginning of the year and responses
• VKU's model for an OPEX markup
• Initiation of proceedings

Consultation on the determinations

Having evaluated the responses received, the Grand Ruling Chamber for Energy has released the following draft determinations for consultation:

Decision draft RAMEN Strom in English

Decision draft RAMEN Gas in English

Note: courtesy translations provided by the Bundesnetzagentur are non-binding.

For clarity, significant changes from the status paper of 16 January 2025 have been highlighted yellow. Changes made due to the separation of the proceedings into RAMEN Strom and RAMEN Gas have not been marked, however. The consultation offers the opportunity to raise new points of argument in light of the entire regulatory framework or to inform the Grand Ruling Chamber for Energy where you believe that arguments raised in previous comments have not been given enough consideration.

Comments may be submitted until:

30 July 2025 (date of receipt).

Stakeholders should use the form below to respond on RAMEN Strom and RAMEN Gas. The form allows you to select if part of your response refers only to RAMEN Strom, to RAMEN Gas, or to both. Please only send one form for the two proceedings.

RAMEN response form
Consent to the publication of GBK consultation responses

Responses must be in German with the subject line “RAMEN Strom/Gas, GBK-25-01-1#1 und GBK-25-01-2#1” and emailed to gbk@bnetza.de.

Please add the name of your company/organisation to the file name.

The Bundesnetzagentur will publish the comments it receives on its website. If your response contains trade and business secrets, please mark your response accordingly and submit an additional version with the confidential information blacked out.

You can also consent to the publication of personal data using the “Consent to the publication of GBK consultation responses”.

Further information on transparency can be found here.

Status at the beginning of the year and responses

The Bundesnetzagentur gave sector stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the draft operative part and considerations until 28 February 2025. This was not a formal consultation. A formal consultation process will be held for the final draft determinations at a later stage. Responses to the consultation will be published here shortly.

The responses to the current draft will be collected under the present reference (GBK‑24‑01‑3#3). As it is expected that the final rules for the electricity and gas sectors will differ considerably, the Grand Ruling Chamber for Energy has decided to issue two separate determinations on incentive regulation for the two sectors and has allocated two different references to the separate proceedings: GBK‑25‑01‑1#1 for the electricity sector and GBK‑25‑01‑2#1 for the gas sector. The two separate proceedings will be formally opened at the latest when the draft determinations are published for consultation.

RAMEN operative part and accompanying considerations

VKU's model for an OPEX markup

The VKU (Verband kommunaler Unternehmen e.V.) presented a model for an OPEX markup using the efficiency benchmarking SFA coefficients to the Bundesnetzagentur on 16 July 2024. The presentation followed the open expert dialogue on 27-28 May 2024 at which the VKU stated that its deliberations were ongoing. The Bundesnetzagentur is currently carrying out an internal assessment of the model. If the Bundesnetzagentur decides to include the model in further stages of the RAMEN determination proceedings [GBK-24-01-3#3], it will hold an open expert dialogue on the topic at which all stakeholder groups will be able to put forward their questions.

Note: the slides published do not include the presentation slides containing company data.

Initiation of proceedings

The Grand Ruling Chamber for Energy opened proceedings for the determination of a regulatory framework and methods for incentive regulation for electricity and gas distribution system operators and gas transmission system operators (RAMEN) for the period following the expiry of the Incentive Regulation Ordinance, Electricity Network Tariffs Ordinance and Gas Network Tariffs Ordinance in accordance with section 29(1) in conjunction with sections 21 and 21a of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) [GBK-24-01-3#3].

The aim of the determination is to describe and substantiate the key elements of the regulatory system. The key elements include the length of the regulatory period, the question of whether or not to have efficiency benchmarking and a productivity factor, and the description of and reasoning behind the regulatory formula. This creates the basis for further, more detailed methodology determinations. The aim is also to retain key elements of the current regulatory system that have proven effective.

The responsibility of the Grand Ruling Chamber derives from section 59(3) sentence 2 in conjunction with section 54(3), section 21 and section 21a of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG).

The Bundesnetzagentur presented its initial thoughts on possible changes to the regulatory framework in a key elements paper, which was published on 18 January 2024 and discussed at a public inaugural event on 2 February 2024. The business groups concerned and other interested parties had the opportunity to comment on the key elements paper until 29 February 2024.

The responses have now been assessed. The Bundesnetzagentur plans to publish the comments on its website after removing any trade and business secrets or personal data.
Further information on transparency can be found here.

The Grand Ruling Chamber opened the proceedings on 7 May 2024 with a view to publishing a draft determination for consultation in the fourth quarter of 2024 and concluding the determination proceedings in 2025 [GBK-24-01-3#3].

The next step was to hold an open expert dialogue enabling an in-depth discussion of various points raised in the responses to the key elements paper, including possible OPEX adjustment models. Further information about the expert dialogue and the topics can be found on the calendar pages.

The expert workshop took place as a hybrid event on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 May 2024. Interested stakeholders and representatives of academia were able to pre-register and join the meeting online via WebEx.