PTA IT consulting supports go-live in record time
On Christmas Eve 2022, the time had come: the German Federal Government required the Federal Network Agency, system operators, electricity supply companies, distribution and transmission system operators to implement the StromPBG (Electricity Price Brake Act) in practice and to establish all necessary processes and interfaces using suitable StromPBG portals in order to ensure compliance with the statutory reporting obligations – including TransnetBW GmbH, which operates the electricity transmission grid in Baden-Württemberg. This was preceded by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law, which caused energy prices to skyrocket. The situation on the markets was dramatic. The electricity price brake provided a remedy. The tense situation on the energy markets and the uncertainty among end customers were not the only explosive factors. It was also a major challenge to get the reporting portal live within a very short period of time and within an unalterable legal timeframe. TransnetBW succeeded with the IT and industry expertise of our team of consultants.
Economic strength and quality of life in southwest Germany
TransnetBW GmbH operates the electricity transmission grid in Baden-Württemberg. The transmission system operator thus secures the electricity supply in the region, in Germany and in Europe. Numerous electricity traders, power plant and distribution grid operators in Germany and abroad are among TransnetBW’s customers and partners. Maximum voltage around the clock, continuously stable at a frequency of 50 Hertz – this is the company’s high standard for secure and trouble-free grid operation. In this way, the transmission system operator ensures the secure transmission of electricity for internationally important industrial companies and more than 11 million people in Baden-Württemberg – reliably and around the clock.
Extraordinary market momentum met with complex regulation
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law, the situation on the European electricity markets finally came to a head at the beginning of 2022: gas supplies from Russia to Germany were cut off and the price of gas rose significantly. As a result, the electricity generation costs, i.e. the costs incurred for converting gas into electricity, skyrocketed at gas-fired power plants, causing German and European exchange electricity prices to rise sharply. At the same time, the sharp rise in exchange electricity prices led to surplus revenues for electricity generation plants such as wind and solar power plants, which have much lower electricity generation costs. While end customers were therefore disproportionately burdened by the high electricity prices, operators of electricity generation plants with low electricity generation costs generated disproportionately high profits.
Electricity price brake should provide a quick remedy
In order to remedy this very tense situation for end consumers, the European Commission adopted a regulation on emergency measures for high energy prices at the beginning of October 2022. Based on these requirements, the German government drew up the Electricity Price Containment Act (StromPBG), which came into force on Christmas Eve 2022. “The StromPBG obliged us to set up a suitable portal for the corresponding reporting processes within a very short time and with an unalterable time window, which covers all the necessary processes and interfaces in the most user-friendly way possible,” says Marian Bilger, one of the TransnetBW managers responsible for the StromPBG portal on the customer side, describing the initial situation.
Logic 1: The new portal relieves the burden on end consumers
In order to cover the complex reporting obligations on the portal side and comply with the logic of the StromPBG, the project managers had to map two aspects on the IT side: the so-called relief side and the skimming side. The relief side had to be implemented within a very short period of time at the turn of the year 2022/2023 and go live at the beginning of 2023. This affected all electricity supply companies (EltVUs) and other end consumers. In total, these are around 400 companies or individuals in TransnetBW’s control area. After a thorough review, the project participants were clear that the relief side of the new StromPBG portal must basically cover the same processes and players as TransnetBW has already established for the billing of the EEG surcharge, only with the payment direction reversed. The option for our development team to fall back on the processes established for the EEG was a great advantage under the existing time pressure. This enabled our IT consultants to create the appropriate data entry forms with complex validation rules to avoid input errors within a very short space of time.
Logic 2: StromPBG portal records surplus revenue on the absorption side
The portal was completed by integrating the necessary processes on the levy side, one of the financing bases of the electricity price brake. Although the levy side had somewhat more generous deadlines with regard to the go-live, it was also considerably more complex to implement. All operators of levy-relevant electricity generation plants are affected. The StromPBG provides for the following mechanism for the determination and absorption of surplus revenues, which must be mapped in the StromPBG portal of TransnetBW: In the first step, the connection grid operators of the plants relevant for skimming off the surplus revenue will communicate the address data of the plant operators to the responsible transmission system operator by 31.03.2023. The system operators recorded in this way are then requested by the latter to register in the StromPBG portal and comply with the statutory reporting obligations there.
The electricity price brake has taken effect
With the new StromPBG portal, TransnetBW has the tool it needs to meet the legal requirements and reporting obligations on time. The portal is characterized by a high level of user-friendliness. Thanks to the in-depth expertise of our IT experts, all the necessary processes went live on time despite the very tight schedule. In this way, the transmission system operator met all the important requirements of the electricity price brake: “Together with our long-standing implementation partner PTA, we not only implemented what was technically necessary within a very short time. We also provided the users of our new StromPBG portal with a clear and easy-to-use solution that allowed them to submit their reports quickly and easily,” summarizes Marian Bilger.
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