Contract and balancing groups

Registration of Balance Groups and Balancing Accounts

As part of standardising these contracts, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) imposed the application of a standard Balance Group Contract on the TSOs, as per its Resolution BNetzA - BK6-06-013 PDF/138KB/DE. This standard Balance Group Contract (BNetzA) PDF / 338KB / DE applies to all new contracts in the TransnetBW control area concluded on or after 01 July 2011.

From 01.06.2018, 00:00 o`clock each BRP (Balancing Responsible Party) receives from the second balance group to be set up a Y-EIC. This Y-EIC can only be used for national balance groups or schedules. This change affects Attachments 1 and 3 of the standard balance group contract.

Further information can be found under the following link:

• BK6-06-013: HARMONIZATION BALANCE GROUP CONTRACTS bnetza.de

In addition to the completed and signed contract, the following documents are relevant for concluding a standard Balance Group Contract in the TransnetBW control area:

• Current extract from the Commercial Register
• Copy of the electricity tax permit if the company supplies itself or end consumers
• Legitimation of the signatory
• Energy quantity and performance forecast (please use the editable form)
• Declaration of exchange regulations for the Balance Group Contract, where applicable
• Authorisations in cases where agreement of the Balance Group Contract and/or the technical planning of the balance group is carried out by a service provider
• Current annual financial statements, as well as other documentation if requested by TransnetBW
• Current certificate (with the File-Extension: .cer) for the 1:1 EDIFACT address given in Appendix 2 of the Balance Group Contract

In addition to the documents listed, the standard Balance Group Contract must be submitted in duplicate on paper to TransnetBW.

Please see the „Overview of Balance Groups“ document in the download area for a list of the balance groups currently valid in the TransnetBW control area.

Balancing Accounts in the TransnetBW control area

With Resolution BK6-07-002 ZIP/324KB/DE, which determines market rules for implementing balance group settlement for electricity (MaBiS), in its rationale of this decision in Section 1.3.4, BNetzA explicitly confirmed the usage of balancing accounts as applicable to the TransnetBW control area, and has equated these with a settlement model in which a Balance Responsible Party operates one or even several balance sub-groups.

The stipulations of the standard Balance Group Contract therefore also apply to the balancing accounts operated by them in the TransnetBW control area. Excepted from this are all regulations in the standard Balance Group Contract that concern the energy exchange by means of schedules.

This means that balancing accounts are excluded from participation in schedule management. The Energy Identification Code (EIC) for balancing accounts is generated by TransnetBW in coordination with the Balance Responsible Party.

The Energy Identification Code (EIC) for balance (sub)groups is issued by BDEW or by the respective ENTSO-E LIO (Local Issuing Office).

Regarding the collateral arrangements in section 14.2 of the standard Balance Group Contract, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that when several balance groups are managed by one company, it is possible that the schedules between these balance groups of a company are not taken into account when calculating adequate collateral. A written and reasoned application must therefore be sent to bilanzkreise@transnetbw.de. TransnetBW will decide on the application within a reasonable time and take into account the respective individual case.