The Bundesnetzagentur's electricity market information platform "SMARD" is online. SMARD is an abbreviation of the German term “Strommarktdaten”, which translates to electricity market data. Data that is published on SMARD’s website gives an up-to-date and in-depth overview of what is happening on the German electricity market. Articles offering background information explain important electricity market terms and relationships. The appealing design of SMARD’s website, coupled with graphs that are easy to understand, makes it easy for users to access the information on the website.

How high is electricity supply and demand? How big is the share of electricity generated from renewable sources? How does electricity consumption change over the course of the day? How much electricity is imported into Germany and exported to its neighbours? SMARD's market data provides answers to these and many other questions. The SMARD platform is divided into five main areas: Electricity market topics, Electricity market explained, Market data visuals, German electricity market and Data Download.

The graph shows current electricity consumption and total generation data for Germany. The effect of the energy transition can be clearly seen: Renewables now account for around 30% of all the electricity generated in Germany - and the trend is continuing upwards. The orange line shows consumption. Consumption levels change over the course of a day. The area above the orange consumption line represents exports. If production drops below this line, electricity is imported.

Individual graphs present current market data in a clear manner

Users can create individual graphs on the SMARD website. SMARD’s data provides insights into electricity generation, electricity consumption, the market and system stability. 

These topics are covered by several data categories such as electricity generation broken down by source, wholesale prices and imports and exports. To learn more about a given category, visit the "Electricity market explained” section where you can find helpful explanations. In addition, SMARD looks at developments on the market in detail in the "Electricity market news" section.

The following electricity market data categories can be accessed in the Market data visuals section:

• Electricity generation
  • Actual generation
  • Forecasted generation
  • Installed capacity
• Electricity consumption
  • Realised consumption
  • Forecasted consumption
• The market
  • Wholesale market price
  • Commercial excanges
  • Physical flows
• System stability
  • Balancing energy
  • Total costs
  • Primary balancing capacity
  • Secondary balancing capacity
  • Tertiary balancing reserve
  • Exported balancing energy
  • Imported balancing energy

Essentially, SMARD’s data is made available in accordance with the Regulation on the submission and publication of data in electricity markets (Commission Regulation (EU) No 543/2013). This regulation requires the German transmission system operators to supply certain data to the European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E. SMARD retrieves the data from there automatically. Data is first examined for correctness and completeness, then further processed, laid out in a clear manner and published on the SMARD Website.

Data quality is of the utmost importance. SMARD receives the data directly from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). Only data verified by the Bundesnetzagentur is published on SMARD. The Bundesnetzagentur is constantly exchanging information with the transmission network operators (TSOs) in order to continuously improve data quality.

SMARD users can store graphs in the personal log in

The personal log-in is helpful for frequent users. Users can save a graph they generated using SMARD’s tools on this page and conveniently access it later. Depending on the setting used, graphs previously saved may either show data for a specific period of time or up-to-date data for the categories specified. The same applies to interesting articles from the  "Electricity market news" and "Electricity market explained” sections. In short: You can personalize your SMARD experience with the log-in area.

“German electricity market” – a one-stop shop for data on renewables, power plants and other key figures

Data in the "German electricity market” section of SMARD is illustrated in a clear manner on a map of the German market area. This map gives users a geographic overview of power generation in Germany: Which part of Germany has the most power plants? What is the dominant source of energy generation in different regions? Additionally, data is also provided for the current feed in of power plants with a generation capacity that exceeds 100 megawatts for each power generation unit. This is how users find out how much energy individual large-scale power plants feed into the grid. Nowadays, renewables account for a large share of the electricity fed into the grid. For the time being, renewable installations are not included on the SMARD website because they usually have an installed capacity of less than 100 megawatts. In the future, however, data for power plants with a lower capacity will also be available in the “German electricity market" section.

Other important statistics such as electricity consumption and wholesale prices are illustrated on the market area map in the "German electricity market” section. Data is updated automatically at regular intervals. This means that users can always access an up-to-date overview of the situation in Germany and the common market area including Luxembourg and Austria.

An interesting option for users who want to do more with the data: All of the data SMARD provides are also available for download. This makes it possible for users to use and analyse data further for research purposes. Notes on the use of SMARD data can be found here.