ElWG from 1 April 2026: What changes for businesses

Since 1 April 2026, key ElWG rules under § 188 para. 2 ElWG (BGBl. I No. 91/2025) have taken effect. For businesses, these ElWG changes matter mainly in three areas: dynamic tariffs, faster switching processes, and more mandatory consumption information.

In brief

Since 1 April 2026, new rules under the ElWG are in effect, including:

• new rules for dynamic tariffs and additional contract information
• tighter timelines for supplier and aggregator switching
• new rules for supplier-of-last-resort arrangements (Auffangversorgung)
• the supported price (gestützter Preis) for eligible households
• additional consumption and information obligations

For businesses, what matters is less each individual provision than the operational effect: pricing becomes more time-sensitive, market processes get tighter, and consumption data needs to be prepared more cleanly.

On the grid-fee side, related rules like the Sommer-Nieder-Arbeitspreis (SNAP) also apply. Legally, SNAP sits outside the ElWG itself.

Four practical consequences of the April package

1. Dynamic tariffs move from concept to product

The April package makes the framework for dynamic electricity tariffs more concrete. End customers with a smart meter are entitled to a supply contract with dynamic energy prices. Suppliers with more than 25,000 metering points must offer such products. On top of that come additional information obligations and a requirement for explicit consent. That affects not just the legal framework, but also product logic, billing, and customer communication.

For businesses, this matters in three areas:

• Energy service providers need to map tariffs, billing, and customer communication cleanly.
• Software providers need data models that combine time-dependent prices with load profiles.
• Energy and facility management gets a stronger incentive to analyse consumption by time of use rather than by annual totals.

Once prices depend more on when electricity is consumed, the value of quarter-hourly data rises. A single annual figure on an invoice is no longer enough.

2. Switching processes become tighter

From 1 April 2026, additional and stricter rules apply to switching suppliers or aggregators. That includes shorter response times. The technical switching process must also not exceed 24 hours from that date.

This is not just relevant for suppliers. It affects the wider market environment:

• master data and contract processes need to be cleaner
• integrations between market participants become more important
• operational delays become visible faster

In practice, that means master-data errors, missing status messages, or manual handovers turn into operational risk more quickly.

3. Consumption information becomes more structured

The April package also brings additional consumption and information obligations into effect. That includes monthly consumption and billing information in certain scenarios, as well as annual information obligations for grid operators and suppliers.

For B2B audiences, this is more than a consumer-protection topic. Anyone working with energy data also needs to make it understandable:

• in portals and dashboards
• in reports for customers or sites
• in transparent evaluations of consumption, tariffs, and load profiles

A typical example: a multi-site setup with monthly consumption information. Without a clean data foundation, teams end up with portal exports, manual consolidation, and delayed reports.

Energy data only becomes useful when it flows into reports, portals, and customer communication without manual rework.

4. Time windows become more economically relevant

SNAP is not a core part of this ElWG April package. As practical context, though, it is worth noting. Under the Systemnutzungsentgelte-Verordnung, the Sommer-Nieder-Arbeitspreis applies to withdrawal quantities at grid level 7, provided those quantities are measured electronically and read by the grid operator.

For businesses, that can mean for example:

• shifting loads into suitable time windows
• reviewing charging times and operating hours
• measuring the effect of those changes in quarter-hourly values

That is exactly why usable smart meter data matters. It shows not just how much electricity was consumed, but when. The distinction matters: even without SNAP, the April changes remain relevant because tariffs, switching processes, and information obligations under the ElWG itself become more concrete.

What the April package means in practice

Energy service providers

For energy service providers, three things become more important:

1. mapping tariff logic clearly
2. getting consumption data into existing systems
3. supporting processes around switching, consumption, and customer information cleanly

The April package does not create the full technical basis on its own. But it does increase the operational pressure to address these topics properly.

More on our page for energy service providers.

Energy and facility management

For energy and facility management, load profiles become more useful in practice. As tariffs become more variable and consumption is analysed more by time of use, base load, peak load, and load shifting all matter more.

These related articles go deeper:

• Consumption analysis: 5 patterns in quarter-hourly data
• Reducing electricity costs: Why businesses should make their consumption visible first

Software providers and developers

For developers, the bottleneck shifts from "is data available at all?" to "how reliably does it get into the product?" What matters: robust imports, clean consent states, and a consistent data model across different grid-operator processes.

The underlying challenge remains the same: the data does not come from a modern standard interface, but from a regulated infrastructure with many market roles and system boundaries. On top of that come consent processes through grid-operator portals and the lack of a uniform REST API.

More on our page for developers.

Important context on smart meter data

The April package is not the full smart-meter story of the ElWG. For businesses working with smart meter data, other provisions also matter — for example on quarter-hourly values, access to metering data, and sharing data with authorised third parties.

In practice, that means 1 April 2026 is an important date. But the legal basis for smart meter data in the market is broader than this single package.

For the wider background, these articles are good starting points:

• Background: ElWG and quarter-hourly values in Austria
• Guide: Smart meter data in Austria
• In practice: How data moves from the smart meter into your system

What businesses should review now

If you work in one of the affected areas, three questions are worth asking:

1. Are tariffs or grid-fee signals in your environment becoming more time-dependent?

If yes, you need better visibility into load profiles and consumption patterns.

2. Can you prepare consumption data clearly for internal or external use?

If not, annual totals are rarely enough. You need consumption data that is usable, traceable, and ready for analysis.

3. Is your current data access still good enough for day-to-day operations?

If data is still pulled manually from portals, copied together, or arrives too late, operational processes slow down.

That is where energiedaten.at comes in: register the metering point, trigger the consent process with the grid operator, the meter holder approves in the operator's portal, then the data arrives daily in one consistent format. Hosted for smaller portfolios, scalable for larger setups.

Conclusion

1 April 2026 does not bring a single big change, but several smaller levers at once: more time-sensitive tariffs, tighter market timelines, and higher requirements for consumption information. Not every rule affects every role directly. Taken together, though, they increase the pressure to provide energy data reliably and in a process-ready format.

Frequently asked questions

What entered into force under the ElWG on 1 April 2026?

From 1 April 2026, the ElWG brought into force rules on dynamic tariffs, additional contract and information obligations, faster supplier and aggregator switching, supplier-of-last-resort arrangements, the supported price for eligible households, and additional consumption and information obligations.

Which changes affect businesses most?

Dynamic tariffs, tighter switching processes, and additional consumption information. Across many roles, these increase the requirements for reliable data, clean processes, and clear customer communication.

What should businesses review now?

A quick check in three areas: tariff logic, switching-process readiness, and reporting capability. Wherever data is still pulled manually from portals or reworked afterwards, operational friction builds up fast.

What role does SNAP play here?

SNAP sits on the grid-fee side, not in the ElWG itself. In practice, it is relevant for withdrawal quantities at grid level 7, provided those quantities are measured electronically and read by the grid operator. That makes quarter-hourly data more important.