German grid regulator launches proceedings against 77 firms over smart meter rollout failures

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has launched legal proceedings against 77 energy companies for failing to meet smart meter installation quotas. By the end of 2025, meter operators were legally required to equip a minimum share of households in their area with smart meters, yet 688 of the 814 companies failed to do so.

Now, 77 companies face penalty payments for not complying with the legal installation requirements. “As a first step, we are today initiating proceedings against those companies that have not yet begun the roll-out,” said BNetzA head Klaus Müller. The agency has said fines will be calculated on the extent of the breach of legal obligations and the operator's “economic capacity”, though exact amounts remain unclear.

While smart meters have been the standard in other European countries for years, most Germans still have analogue meters. Smart meters are a prerequisite for a more dynamic and flexible power system. They allow customers to adapt their electricity demand to periods of high or low supply, and enable dynamic tariffs that reward households for shifting consumption to times when power is cheap and plentiful. More flexibility on the consumption side will be crucial as the share of renewables grows.

Meter operators are obliged to install smart meters in at least 20 percent of households with an annual electricity consumption of at least 6,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), or those with heat pumps or electric car charging stations that exceed a power output of 4.2 kW. Bigger operators on average have achieved the target, while those with a smaller number of households have lagged, according to BNetzA data. BNetzA said it would initiate further proceedings in stages, affecting small and medium-sized operators that have not yet met the 20-percent share.