The Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt are both required under the Energy Act (EnWG) and the Competition Act (GWB) respectively to conduct monitoring activities in the electricity and gas sectors. The Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt will therefore be collecting data for the Monitoring Report 2014 in the period between 7 April and 9 May 2014.

The Bundesnetzagentur's monitoring tasks are set out in section 35 EnWG. Under section 63(3) EnWG, the Bundesnetzagentur must publish a report annually on the results of its monitoring activities, conducted in the performance of its regulatory tasks in the electricity and gas sectors, most notably to create transparency in the markets. The Bundeskartellamt's monitoring tasks are set out in section 48(3) GWB and relate to market opening, transparency and competition at wholesale and retail level. The report to be drawn up by the Bundeskartellamt on its monitoring activities in accordance with section 48(3) in conjunction with section 53(3) GWB is to be included in the Bundesnetzagentur's monitoring report. Additionally, the Bundesnetzagentur is required under section 63(3) EnWG to submit to the European Commission and the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) a report on the outcomes of its monitoring activities.

The Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt work together closely in drawing up the reports. The information requested in questionnaires 2, 3, 5 to 8, 10 and 11 is for the Bundesnetzagentur. The joint questionnaires (1, 4 and 9) indicate if the information requested is for the Bundesnetzagentur, the Bundeskartellamt or both. It is hoped that drawing up joint questionnaires will go some way towards meeting the interests of the companies taking part in minimising the administrative burden.

All companies and groups operating in Germany in the individual areas (production, import, metering operations and metering services, trade, sales, etc) are requested to complete the questionnaires relevant to their business areas and submit them by email to monitoring.energie@bnetza.de. For groups, parent companies should not provide aggregate responses. The information requested in the questionnaires is related directly to the particular company, not to companies in which the responding company has a stake.

Please complete only those questionnaires that are relevant to your company. The questionnaires and definitions for the 2014 survey will be available in Excel format on the Bundesnetzagentur's website http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de and the Bundeskartellamt's website http://www.bundeskartellamt.de as from 7 April 2014.

A summary (PDF file) of the responses to the consultation, including any changes made to the questionnaires put out for consultation and to the portal, is also available on these websites.

The information provided in response to the questionnaires will be published in the Monitoring Report 2014 in summary form only. Confidential information will not be disclosed.

Companies may submit their information in encrypted form, using an easy-to-use encryption tool available for download together with the questionnaires. Responses can alternatively be submitted on CD to:

Referat 603 - Monitoring
Bundesnetzagentur
Tulpenfeld 4
53113 Bonn

The questionnaires for the monitoring 2014 may be found here.

If you have any questions about the questionnaires, please send an email to monitoring.energie@bnetza.de (subject: "Rückfrage Monitoring 2014"); please do not send your questions together with completed questionnaires. A special hotline will also be open during the survey period on +49 228 14 59 99.