Press Release ADDRESS Tulpenfeld 4 53113 Bonn Bonn, 22 December 2006 TEL +49 (0) 228 14–9921 Page 1 of 3 FAX +49 (0) 228 14–8975

[email protected] www.bundesnetzagentur.de Federal Network Agency approves further electricity and gas operator charges

Electricity approval notices

The Federal Network Agency has now approved the use-of-system charges of a further 16 electricity supply companies.

The Agency scaled back the costs filed by HEAG Südhessische Energie AG in Darmstadt by a good 15 percent, those filed by N-ERGIE AG in Nuremberg by about 16 percent, and those of SWM Infrastruktur GmbH, München by about 20 percent. The approved charges are applicable from 1 November 2006.

Of the costs filed by EWE Netz GmbH, Oldenburg, just under 10 percent was not approved, of those filed for by REWAG Netz GmbH, Regensburg, about 19 percent was not approved, for badenova AG & Co. KG, Freiburg, this figure was a good 15 percent and for Pfalzwerke AG, Ludwigshafen, it was 11 percent. The charges approved for these companies are applicable from 1 December 2006.

Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG's use-of-system charges were also approved. The new charges, applicable since 4 December 2006, are based on reduced costs of around 12 percent.

Also approved were Vattenfall Europe Transmission GmbH's charges for 2007. The costs it had filed for were scaled back by a good 10 percent. Yet the current charges, reduced as a result of the previous prices and costs examination, could not be continued. The new charges are well over 20 percent higher than the charges approved until the end of this year. One of the main reasons for this is the electricity price rises of the last few years, particularly on the European Energy Exchange, the EEX. They are manifest in the costs of procuring electricity to compensate for the energy loss incurred when electricity is transported. Moreover, additional energy is required in order to pass on to the suppliers, in a structured way, the electricity volumes – chiefly from wind power – that are to be bought under the Renewable Energy Sources Act and that have clearly risen in the last few years. The other transmission system operators – unlike Vattenfall Europe Transmission GmbH – had applied from the outset for approval until 31 December 2007. The effects described had already been taken into account.

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Through an official delegation of powers, charges were also approved in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. For Stadtwerke Parchim GmbH the reduction was just under five percent; just under three percent of Stadtwerke Ludwigslust-Grabow GmbH's costs were not recognised, and just under seven percent of Stadtwerke Malchow's. Slightly less than 13 percent of Energieversorgung Hildesheim GmbH & Co. KG's were not eligible; Stadtwerke Wolfenbüttel GmbH's costs were scaled back by almost seven percent. Around 10 percent of the costs filed for by Stadtwerke Flensburg GmbH were not recognised and just less than 12 percent of those of VSG-Netz GmbH, based in Ratzeburg, were not eligible.

All these approvals run until 31 December 2007.

Gas approval notices

The Agency has also approved the charges of 16 gas suppliers.

Of the cost block HEAG Südhessische Energie AG, Darmstadt, had filed for, 18.2 percent was not accepted. The Agency scaled back the charges Süwag Netz GmbH in Frankfurt am Main had filed for by 13.8 percent, and found that 23.9 percent of Harz Energie GmbH & Co. KG's, Osterode, were not eligible. For NBB Netzgesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg the Agency could not consider 10.4 percent of the costs applied for for the Berlin area and 9.3 percent of those applied for for the Brandenburg area. The Agency reduced Energieversorgung Limburg's costs by 18.7 percent, and those of Energieversorgung Mittelrhein, Koblenz, by 22.5 percent. For Rheinische NETZGesellschaft, 12.7 percent of the costs filed for for the area served by Bergische Licht-, Kraft-, und Wasserwerke GmbH were not eligible; for RheinEnergie AG's network area the reduction was 9.4 percent, for Stadtwerke Leichlingen's network 11.6 percent and for Energieversorgung Leverkusen's network 20.4 percent. Bad Honnef AG's recognised costs were 15.7 percent lower that those it had filed for; the figure for Mitgas Mitteldeutsche Gasversorgung in Halle (Saale) was 8.3 percent, and for NRM Netzdienste Rhein-Main GmbH in Frankfurt am Main it was 18.6 percent. 19 percent was the scaleback for Stadtwerke Osnabrück. And 21.2 percent of the costs put forward by SWU Netze GmbH in Ulm were not recognised.

In Bremen, Thuringia and Lower Saxony the first examinations of system charges were completed under an official delegation of powers. swb Netze Bremerhaven GmbH's costs were scaled back by 11.4 percent. For EW Eichsfeldgas GmbH in Leinefelde-Worbis, 8.2 percent of the cost block it had applied for was not approved, and for Stadtwerke Erfurt 12.4 percent of its cost block was not approved. For Braunschweiger Versorgungs- AG & Co. KG the cost reduction was 7.2 percent.

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The reduced charges must be implemented immediately, and run until 31 March 2008.

The reductions in the electricity and gas charges result from the examination of the companies' current outlay costs, of cost accounting for their fixed assets, of current assets, and of cost of capital.

In all, the Agency has now checked more than 80 percent of the volume of costs filed for in the electricity sector and some 60 percent in the gas sector, and has issued approvals accordingly.