The EU Data Act: Opportunities for Energy Service Providers

The EU Data Act has been entirely in force since 12 September 2025. September 2025, and will become a key driver of digital change in the energy industry. It is intended to simplify access to data, ensure interoperability, and create a fair framework for all market participants. The market role of energy service provider (ESA), which was created by the Federal Network Agency in 2023, means opportunities for innovative business models and the obligation to implement regulatory and technical requirements.

Parallel to this, the BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Industries), in close coordination with the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), has published new specifications for a web API that serves as the technological basis for standardized data exchange in the energy market and will soon be extended to measured values and time series.

The Data Act pursues three core objectives:

1. Facilitate data access: Businesses and consumers have a statutory right to share data from devices and platforms.

2. Fairness in the data market: Providers should not create any impermissible barriers to the use of data.

3. Ensure interoperability: Uniform standards should facilitate the exchange between systems.

This legal framework is fundamental in the energy industry. Data from smart metering systems, IoT devices, and energy management solutions form the basis for flexibility management, energy efficiency services, and digital value-added products.

In a statement, Bitkom emphasizes that there are still many unanswered questions regarding practical implementation - such as liability, data sovereignty, and cost distribution. Nevertheless, the Data Act will permanently change the market and establish new roles.

The ESA role is becoming massively more critical with these developments:

• Minute and 15-minute values as the basis for data-based flexibility management: Derivation of energy flows in buildings, charging points, heat pumps, and storage

• Networked products: collection of data and standardized provision of value-added services for end customers: Energy apps, CO₂ analyses, consumption optimization

• New business models: Aggregation of flexibilities or provision of efficiency services

With the BDEW's standardized APIs, it becomes possible to offer these services in a scalable and interoperable way, independent of the proprietary solutions of individual Network operators or Measurement point operators.

To ensure that the EU Data Act remains a legal framework and creates concrete added value, energy service providers need practical IT solutions. Subject to further development by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the BNetzA, a clear roadmap is crucial:

• Ensure data access: Establishing interfaces that enable legally compliant access to measured values, load profiles, and master data.

• Rule-compliant use: Implement role and rights concepts to ensure data sovereignty, protection, and IT security.

• Use standardized APIs: Use open interfaces according to BDEW specifications to promote interoperability and scalability in the market.

• Integration into existing processes: Connection to market communication systems and IT landscapes to efficiently incorporate the new data streams.

• Enable innovation: Development of data-driven services - from flexibility management and CO₂ analyses to value-added services for end customers.

Companies can use the EU Data Act to meet regulatory requirements and build innovative business models. Competent IT service providers such as Arvato Systems, which are characterized by their extensive IT and industry expertise, can help with this. The experts at Arvato Systems support companies in becoming energy service providers and making data efficient and secure to use. Come and talk to us now!

The EU Data Act, the new BDEW Web-API and the hotly debated conversion to central hubs mark a turning point for the energy industry. They create a framework in which data can be better used, shared and monetized - to the benefit of consumers, utilities and innovative energy service providers.

Even if - as Bitkom representatives emphasize - legal and practical questions are still open, companies should start adapting their data strategies and platforms at an early stage.

Who now focuses on interoperability, API standards and data-Governance ensures not only regulatory compliance, but also a decisive competitive advantage in the energy market of tomorrow.

Secure market communication today is highly formalized (GPKE, MaBiS, WiM). The Federal Network Agency has prepared the ingredients that already enable data hubs and data rooms today:

• Smart Meter PKI: provides security and authentication.

• BDEW Web-API: standardizes access to data (instead of proprietary solutions) and will soon also be extended to measured values.

• API directory services: make offered data sources and -interfaces findable similar to a library catalog.

In conjunction with the EU Data Act, this becomes the first step towards data spaces:

• ESA can request and provide standardized data.

• Non-personal data automatically flows into the infrastructure.

• Value-added services are created on an interoperable, trustworthy basis.

This is how we approach the vision: data rooms like in the Future Energy Lab of the dena or GAIA-X show how energy data can be used across the board - from dynamic tariffs to charging infrastructure certificates.