German Government Accelerates Smart Meter Rollout

Wall of Electrical Meters

Photo by Unsplash

by | Feb 7, 2023

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The German government has passed a bill to accelerate smart electricity meter rollout by removing competition restrictions on hardware selection and making grid operators shoulder more of the cost. The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has set a 2030 deadline for the energy sector to deploy smart meters nationwide, with a view to having the digital infrastructure for a close-to zero-energy supply.

The new act is to relaunch the digitization of the energy transition. From 2025, all electricity suppliers will be required to offer dynamic tariffs for customers to shift demand away from peak times when renewable electricity is readily available and prices are lower.

The ministry has decided the country’s three manufacturer rule, which prescribed multiple manufacturers for each development stage, should be dropped and that going forward, the pace will be set by the most innovative manufacturer and that it will no longer be necessary to wait for three manufacturers to achieve the same level of technological development.

It has further relaxed the rules to accelerate meter deployments. Certified devices can now be installed for consumers of up to 100,000 kWh and generators of up to 25 kW even if certain hardware functionalities are unavailable – on the basis that they can be patched in later in software. 

The ministry has ruled the cost of metering be shared more fairly, with grid operators bearing most of the cost in return for most of the service. It has said data sharing is to be expanded and data privacy is to be improved, at the same time. The act stipulates that standardization efforts by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) focus on meter gateways.

Robert Habeck, Germany’s minister for economic affairs, said: “Today’s decision… is a key element in the transformation of our energy supply. We are phasing out of fossil fuels, we are in the midst of it, but all the different elements need to work together intelligently. We need to press ahead with expanding renewable energy and press ahead also with amending and improving the system as a whole. This is what today’s decision is about.

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