Germany

Getting Electricity in

Germany

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Germany.

This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

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  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Vattenfall Europe Distribution Berlin GmbH
  • City: Berlin

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Conclude supply agreement with electricity supplier

The customer concludes a supply contract with Vattenfall Sales (VE Sales) Berlin. The customer selects a tariff on the website of VE Sales or the customer has a conversation with a representative of the business client team at VE Sales. Afterwards, the customer concludes a supply contract.
Agency: Vattenfall Europe Sales GmbH 		14 calendar days no charge
* 2 Submit application with Vattenfall Europe Distribution Berlin GmbH and await and accept estimate

The application can be submitted online by email. Documents to be submitted are: Architect’s plan indicating the room for the grid connection, a route in the building and on the lot for the cable, power performance balance for the building, technical information of the connection, registration number of the electrician and map of the area (“Flurplan”). The application can only be submitted by a registered electrician with the utility. This is required because the application is also of technical nature and technical information is required in the application form. The electrician responsible for the internal wiring of the warehouse has to be listed at the local distribution system operator (Full License) or via a “guest pass” from another German distribution system operator (Guest License). There are no costs for the registration process. The installer identification from any other DSO of the electrician or the Master craftsman’s diploma, trading license and a standard form of the distribution operator is needed for the listing process. To be authorized to install internal wiring in a house, an electrician has to be a Master electrician (“Elektromeister”). Master electrician ("Elektromeister") means he/she is licensed with the Chamber of Commerce and has a Craftsman Diploma. This is the general procedure and requirement to be allowed to work as electrician in Germany and to do the internal wiring in a house. The Master electrician ("Elektromeister") is always legally responsible for the internal wiring. All Master electricians (“Elektromeister”) in Berlin are registered with Vattenfall. This license is valid for all his/her projects in the area of the local DSO. Electricians working in the field of industrial (warehouses) connections are registered with Vattenfall in a second form through training. Those electricians receive a number ("Installateurnummer") and are allowed to install the meter. All electricians in Berlin that are working in the field of industrial (warehouses) connections are certified by Vattenfall. The list of those certified electricians is on the website of Vattenfall and can be obtained at the Guild of electricians ("Elektroinnung") as well. There is no external and no internal inspection. The internal wiring is never inspected by Vattenfall DSO, as they trust the electricians through a process of registration and diplomas.
Agency: Vattenfall Europe Distribution Berlin GmbH 		12 calendar days no charge
3 Make payment and await completion of external connection works and meter installation by Vattenfall Europe Distribution Berlin GmbH

The customer is paying the estimate at a bank through a wire transfer. The required external connection works are underground work for the cable, building of metering, building of the grid connection, and connection of the building to the grid. The meter gets installed at the same time when the connection is done and by the same or another department if the meter installation is done by Vattenfall DSO. However, in most of the cases, the private electrician (the Master electrician) who did the internal wiring would install the meter. At this moment, this private electrician has to hand over to Vattenfall DSO a form ("Errichterbescheinigung") that certifies that he installed the internal wiring accordingly to technical and safety standards. In 98% of all cases, the internal wiring and the external connection works are done at the same time and usually the external connection works are completed before the internal wiring as this is usually more complex. Electricity starts flowing immediately.
Agency: Vattenfall Europe Distribution Berlin GmbH 		3 calendar days EUR 15,500.0
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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