Installation rules for intelligent electricity meters from the table

Intelligent electricity metering

According to EU plans, smart meters are to be rolled out across Europe.

Dusseldorf The installation of intelligent electricity meters – so-called smart meters – in German households may take longer than previously planned. This emerges from a communication from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The authority anticipates a possible defeat in court with its declaration. Next Wednesday, the administrative court in Cologne was to negotiate a market declaration that the BSI issued in February 2020. This negotiation is not happening now.

The incident is a tough one, because smart meters are an important factor in the success of the energy transition. The more solar systems are built on roofs, the more frequently extremely high electricity production occurs on sunny days. And the more electric cars are charging in German garages, the more often thousands of people are drawing energy from the grid at the same time. Both put a strain on the power grid. With intelligent electricity meters, the grid operator can regulate who feeds electricity into the grid or draws it from the grid and when.

But the installation of smart meters in Germany has not progressed for years. For a long time there were no certified devices on the market. In February 2020, the BSI then gave the official starting signal for the smart meter roll-out, an apparent breakthrough. Now the authority has withdrawn this starting shot. The energy transition will have to wait.

Although the BSI’s statement continues the years of back and forth in the German smart meter roll-out, it makes many industry members happy. Around 50 companies had filed a complaint against the BSI’s market statement.

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On the one hand, municipal utilities had complained. The BSI stipulated that so-called responsible metering point operators – often municipal utilities – must equip ten percent of their intended metering points with certified smart meters within three years. A major challenge for many municipal utilities. The deadline is now off the table.

Smart meter not technically mature

In addition to the municipal utilities, competitive metering point operators were also dissatisfied with the market declaration. These are companies that are also allowed to install electricity meters for customers. Some have been installing alternative smart meters in households for years that are not certified. According to lawyer Anna von Bremen from the Raue law firm, they should continue to do so until the BSI issues a new market statement.

The third group, consumer advocates, are happy about the withdrawal of the BSI. Because according to the market statement that has now been received, the installed smart meters could have become expensive for users. It provided for concrete upper price limits for smart meters. Anyone with an annual consumption of between 6,000 and 10,000 kilowatt hours (e.g. a four-person household with an electric car and a heat pump) should have had a smart meter in the coming years and paid up to 100 euros per year for it.

>> Read also: Half-hearted start: energy companies criticize the German smart meter strategy

It is now unclear whether and what costs may arise. Holger Schneidewindt, energy law expert from the NRW consumer advice center, says: “There is simply no legal basis for charging consumers any metering fees for mandatory installation.” And there is a fourth reason why various players did not start two years ago agreed: Despite years of preparation, the required smart meter gateways are not technically mature, according to experts. After all, they are intended to help stabilize the power grids.

Plaintiff attorney Jost Eder from the law firm Becker Büttner Held (BBH) told Handelsblatt on Monday: “The plaintiff companies that we represent are primarily concerned with the fact that the previous devices do not reflect the full functional catalog of the meter operation law.”

The industry association BDEW, on the other hand, sees it differently: “The decision of the OVG Münster related both to the legal situation and to the state of the art at the time of the market declaration in January 2020,” explains its boss Kerstin Andreae. “Since then, the legal framework has changed and the device technology has developed significantly. In the verdict, the functions criticized as missing are now available.” There is therefore nothing standing in the way of a new market declaration.

More: Energy independence from Russia: EU Commission plans to make solar roofs compulsory for new buildings

Handelsblatt energy briefing

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