Dienstleistungsportal Bayern

The notification obligation relates to the supply of household customers with both electricity and gas.

According to Section 3 No. 19a of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG), gas is

• Natural gas,
• biogas,
• liquid gas within the scope of §§ 4 and 49 EnWG
• as well as when fed into a gas supply network,
  • hydrogen produced by water electrolysis, and
  • synthetically generated methane that has been produced by hydrogen generated by water electrolysis and subsequent methanation.

The obligation to notify exists regardless of whether the electricity is supplied from conventional energy sources (gas, coal, etc.), from renewable energy sources in accordance with the EEG or from a CHP plant. If the energy supplier wishes to distribute both gas and electricity, it may submit a joint notification for both activities.

Foreign electricity and gas suppliers are equally obliged, irrespective of whether they are based in Germany or abroad, to notify their activities in accordance with Section 5 EnWG as soon as they wish to supply household customers in Germany with energy. The notification must be written in German.

The notification requirement only applies to energy supply companies that supply household customers with energy; these are defined in Section 3 No. 22 EnWG:

• Final consumers who supply energy predominantly for their own household consumption or
• for own consumption not exceeding an annual consumption of 10,000 kilowatt hours for professional, agricultural or commercial purposes.

The publication of the energy supply companies in the list of notified companies on the website of the Federal Network Agency is free of charge after completion of a plausibility check of the notification.

It is pointed out that the notification pursuant to Section 5 EnWG and the publication do not constitute an "approval". The regulatory authority may at any time prohibit the exercise of the activity in whole or in part if the personnel, technical or economic capacity or reliability is not guaranteed. The prohibition is subject to a fee pursuant to § 91 (1) No. 2 EnWG.