Special report Reforming the German energy sector By Matthias Lang, German Energy Blog The new Digitisation of the Energy Turnaround Act (Gesetz zur Digitalisierung der Energiewende) was published into German Federal Law on 2 September 2016. The new law will finally get the long-awaited smart meter rollout and connected infrastructure in Germany going, defining future roles and tasks for all market participants. D espite its ambitious name, the new law mainly covers smart metering, not everything connected with digitisation in the energy sector. The Act contains a framework for the electricity sector to become one of the first fully digitised sectors in Germany’s economy. However, the name ‘Digitisation of the Energy Turnaround Act’ is overly broad and therefore somewhat misleading, as the bill only covers certain aspects of energy sector digitisation. It mainly deals with the installation and operation of smart metering systems in the distribution grid. More specifically, it aims to put in place certain technical preconditions and data protection rules, mainly contained in a new Metering Point Operating Act. The new Act is originally based on the Third Internal Market Package, introduced by the EU as far back as 2009. The directives of this package require all EU member states to equip at least 80% of consumers with intelligent metering systems by 2020, subject to a positive national commercial assessment of the rollout. Contrary to other areas of energy policy (particularly for renewable energy), the German government has been wary of the costs associated with this task. It took a long time to put the first legislative proposal on the table, and an even longer time to agree on the new – but still limited – German smart metering regime. Key objective The key objective of the new law is to facilitate the implementation of smart meters and ‘smart meter gateways’. The new law also introduces specific and detailed requirements, both for the design of the smart meter devices and for the transmission of data. The overall goal is to open the German energy market to digitisation, while ensuring a high standard regarding data protection and ICT security. 6 New roles, new regulations The central part of the reform is the newly implemented Smart Meters Operation Act. In 77 sections, the new Act sets out new rules for the marketing and use of ‘smart meters’ and ‘smart meter gateways’. The Smart Meters Operation Act introduces new regulated market roles, particularly the role of the ‘meter operator’, who is in charge of – and responsible for – the implementation, operation and maintenance of smart meters, and who has specific legal obligations in that role. According to the new law, the responsibility connected with the rollout of the ‘meter operator’ initially rests on the energy supply grid operator. Using a special public procurement procedure, it can however transfer this position to a third-party service provider. The Smart Meters Operation Act defines extensive technical requirements for the technologies involved, particularly regarding the reliability and security of energy measurement and the transmission of data. Compliance with the new rules is controlled and supervised by both the Federal Office for Information Security and the Federal Network Agency. The new Act contains a staggered rollout plan for the installation of smart meters. The rollout will begin in 2017 and will continue until 2032. The process comprises different rollout periods for different types of end consumers and plant operators, depending on the amount of energy they use, or feed in. For some types of consumers and operators, the rollout will have to be finished before the end of 2024. The Smart Meters Operation Act in principle requires operators to equip consumers above 6,000 kWh p.a. consumption, and Germany: Digitisation of the Energy turnaround ACT