Unbundling in 2026 and 2027: two compliance reports and the end of charging points at small grid operators

Three deadlines, one threshold of 100,000 customers

Which of the three deadlines applies comes down to one number: 100,000 customers directly or indirectly connected to the distribution network of the vertically integrated undertaking, counted separately for electricity and gas. Below that line a DSO need not be a separate company (Section 7(2) EnWG) and need not run a compliance programme (Section 7a(7) EnWG). The charging-point ban in Section 7c EnWG has no such exemption, so the first deadline lands on exactly the small electricity grid operators that barely notice the rest of unbundling.

For the scale, look at the Monitoring Report 2025 by the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Cartel Office: 767 of the 851 registered electricity DSOs have fewer than 100,000 connected customers, and 670 of 699 in gas. Since the report counts per grid operator and the unbundling threshold per vertically integrated undertaking, so the figures show the order of magnitude, not a list of who is bound. Arithmetically, 84 electricity DSOs sit above the line and report by 31 March; the 767 below it need to establish by the end of the year whether they still own or operate charging points.

Charging points at small electricity DSOs: end on 31 December 2026

From 1 January 2027 no electricity DSO in Germany may own, develop, manage or operate a charging point for electric vehicles, except private ones for its own use. That includes the small municipal utility that runs grid and retail in one company. Section 7c(1) EnWG transposes Article 33(2) of the Electricity Directive (EU) 2019/944, which makes no exception for company size. So all the German legislator could give small grid operators was time, and that runs out on 31 December 2026.

Until then, small grid operators must give third parties access to these charging points on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (Section 118(34) sentence 5). After that date, an application won't help either. Section 7c(2) EnWG does allow operation where a municipality has established a regional market failure through an open tender and the Federal Network Agency approves, but only on the terms of an ordinance under subsection 3, and that ordinance does not exist. In its unbundling FAQ the agency says the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs "has not yet made use" of the power, so an exemption "cannot be granted". Anyone counting on approval by December is planning against the law as it stands.

One point is worth settling before you plan. Section 118(34) refers to charging points operated before 27 July 2021, while the agency's FAQ puts it more broadly, saying small DSOs are exempt from the Section 7c ban "until 31 December 2026". For charging points added later, agree the reading with the agency, including whether they belong in the notification. It makes no difference on 1 January: from then on the ban applies to all of them.

Where the charging points can go

The ban applies to the company in which the network is operated, not to the vertically integrated undertaking. Another company in the group may own the charging points, the Federal Network Agency writes, and for small DSOs it even accepts a subsidiary of the grid operator: the ban on the grid-parent model (grid operator as parent, retail or generation in the subsidiary) does not bite there, because grid, generation and retail may sit in one legal entity anyway. One condition applies: the subsidiary takes the strategic decisions itself and does not act as an "empty shell" of the grid operator.

How much the grid operator may still do afterwards is the real design question. In the Federal Network Agency's view, services between the small DSO and the charging company are possible "within certain limits", as long as Section 7c is not circumvented. BDEW goes further and treats construction and technical operation on behalf of the charging company as permissible, provided ownership, economic risk and decisions on new sites stay away from the grid operator. A contract that leaves site planning to the grid operator would be too much under either reading.

Accounting changes too. As long as the grid operator holds charging points under Section 7c(2), it keeps them as a separate activity with separate accounts under Section 6b(3) sentence 1 no. 7 EnWG; after the transfer that activity disappears from its books and the charging point sits with its new owner.

Compliance report under Section 7a EnWG: 31 March 2027

DSOs above the threshold submit the report on calendar year 2026 by Wednesday 31 March 2027. The law puts the duty on the compliance officer, who submits the report to the regulator and publishes it without personal data (Section 7a(5) sentence 3). It sits at the end of a chain the vertically integrated undertaking has to build first: a compliance programme with binding measures for everyone doing network work, defined duties and sanctions, and an officer who monitors that the programme is kept.

Each year the Federal Network Agency sets focus topics. For the 2025/26 reporting year, each report had to cover one of four: the 24-hour supplier switch, compliance management in hydrogen network operation, the AS4 migration of market communication, and handling data in municipal heat planning, for which the WPG amendment of May 2026 creates a heat planning data space. In all four, grid operators pass data or dates to market partners, and discrimination happens where the group's own retail arm learns earlier or more than an outside supplier. Topics for the 2027 report will be announced in advance; check its unbundling page before the end of the year to see whether the list has changed.

Reports go to the Federal Network Agency by email to its unbundling unit or through the Energie Client; if you use the client, it asks for a short email with the operator number. Companies below the threshold have no reporting duty. Even so, the agency recommends a compliance programme, and informational unbundling under Section 6a applies to everyone anyway, including when grid data goes to the group's own retail business. How far that reaches for meter data and grid models is covered in our piece on whether the grid model may go to sales.

Independent transmission operators: report by 30 September 2027

Transmission and gas transmission system operators certified under the independent transmission operator (ITO) model remain part of the vertically integrated undertaking and are supervised more closely in return. Their compliance officer prepares a report on implementing the compliance programme once a year under Section 10e(4) sentence 2 EnWG and submits it to the regulator by 30 September at the latest. That is only part of the reporting load: the officer also keeps the regulator informed of significant breaches and of the financial and commercial relations with the vertically integrated undertaking.

For an ITO, the September report is therefore less a summary than a reconciliation: it has to match what the officer already reported during the year. Here, too, the agency announces focus topics in advance; it has not yet published the ones for 2027.

What applies when a deadline passes

None of the three deadlines has its own offence in Section 95 EnWG; the consequences run through supervision. A small electricity DSO that still owns or operates charging points after 31 December 2026 breaches Section 7c(1), because the approval that Section 118(34) presumed has expired. Under Section 65 EnWG, the Federal Network Agency can order the breach to stop and enforce the order with coercive fines under Section 94, ranging from 1,000 euros to 10 million euros. A missing compliance report follows the same pattern: order under Section 65(2), coercive fines under Section 94. A fine only becomes possible once the company ignores an enforceable order (Section 95(1) no. 3(a)), and it can reach 100,000 euros under Section 95(2) no. 5.

In 2024 BDEW pointed to two consequences outside the EnWG. Once the transition period has ended, the auditor can qualify the audit opinion, and funding authorities can check unbundling as a condition and refuse funding in case of doubt. Both reach a municipal utility faster than administrative proceedings, which in the association's view would only become enforceable at the end of a longer legal dispute.

The dispute over municipal utilities' charging points

The charging-point ban for small DSOs has been argued over since 2021, and the positions have hardly moved. BDEW wrote on 3 July 2024 that the result was legally consistent "but paradoxical in practice: de minimis companies may supply energy (which is the core of unbundling), but may not build charging points" (our translation). The Federal Network Agency counters in its FAQ that the EU provision "provides for no de minimis exemption", and that applying the exemptions from Section 7(2) and Section 7a(7) by analogy is ruled out.

168 small utilities took part in BDEW's May 2024 survey. 93 percent ran grid and retail in one company, and 92 percent owned, operated or managed public charging points. More than 80 percent had not implemented the rules by June 2024, and 30 percent said they would stop building or running public charging stations. BDEW proposed a de minimis threshold of up to 50 charging points, a de minimis rule in the directive and a two-year extension of the transition period. Only the extension came, with the Act of February 2025.

There was also a dispute over who counts as the "grid operator" in the first place. BDEW and VKU argued that in a company running both grid and retail, only the grid unit is meant, citing Section 3 no. 2 EnWG; retail in the same company could then have kept the charging points. The Federal Network Agency, some state regulators, funding authorities and auditors read the term as the legal entity, and by 2024 the association itself no longer expected to win the argument. No further extension beyond 2026 has been passed. Planning on one means betting on a change in the law that does not exist at the end of October 2026.

What to do before the three dates

Small electricity DSOs have a little over two months, and transferring a charging point takes more than a notification: contracts, subsidy notices, land use and billing all hang on it. Both reports have more slack but depend on documentation that has to be produced during the year.

Steps to the end of 2026 and through 2027

1. Take stock of the charging points

   Every site with owner, commissioning date (before or after 27 Jul 2021), subsidy notice and earmarking period, land use agreement, back-end and roaming contracts. Without this list none of the routes can be assessed.

2. Choose the route

   Another company, cooperation, sale or shutdown, site by site. Management decides, in agreement with the funding authority where a notice restricts transfer.

3. Put transfer and services into contracts

   Ownership, economic risk and site decisions sit with the charging company; whatever the grid operator still does technically goes into a service agreement. Whether assets are transferred one by one or carved out as a whole has tax and corporate law consequences that should be settled before December.

4. Notify the Federal Network Agency

   In text form, by the end of 31 Dec 2026 at the latest.

5. Prepare the compliance report on 2026

   Collect the year's evidence by December, wait for the agency's 2027 focus topics and cover one of them, and schedule sign-off and publication for 31 Mar 2027. For independent transmission operators the same applies with 30 Sep 2027 and a check against the year's ongoing reports.

Further reading

Frequently asked questions