On behalf of BDEW, the German Association of Energy and Water Companies, NERA Director Dr. Richard Hern and Associate Director Tomas Haug prepared an expert report on the allowed return on equity for German electricity and gas networks. The BDEW’s publishing house, VWEW, then published the report as a book in late June 2008. On 7 July, the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), Germany’s networks regulator, announced it was increasing its estimate of the required return on equity by 1.5 percentage points in response to “better arguments.” The decision followed a presentation given by NERA’s team before the BNetzA four days earlier.

The book can be ordered from the VWEW website. A summary of NERA’s report, which can be accessed here, was published in the June 2008 edition of Energiewirtschaftliche Tagesfragen.