Technical operations management

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An electricity company operating a transmission or distribution network (‘network operator’) must appoint an operations manager before commencing operations. The operations manager is a natural person who is responsible and accountable for the technical management and supervision of the network operation.

The operations manager must fulfil the following requirements:

• have full legal capacity and have reached the age of 24;
• have Austrian citizenship or be a citizen of another EU member state or EEA Contracting State;
• have their main place of residence in Austria or in another EU Member State or EEA Contracting State;
• have their main activity in domestic companies;
• have the professional competence to manage and supervise the operation of networks.

Professional competence shall be proven by the presentation of the professional qualifications required for practising electrical engineering.

The authority may grant an exemption from this requirement upon application by the network operator if:

1. according to their educational background and previous work, it can be assumed that the intended operations manager possesses the knowledge, skills and experience required to fulfil their duties, or;
2. sufficient capability can be assumed and;
3. it is unreasonable to expect that the required professional qualifications be provided on account of age, poor health or other important reasons relating to the operations manager.

Certain offences under criminal law result in disqualification from exercising the activity.

• Anyone who has been sentenced by a court to a custodial sentence exceeding 3 months or to a monetary penalty of more than 180 daily rates (does not apply if the conviction has been expunged or is subject to a restriction on disclosure of information from the criminal record);
• Anyone who has been punished for the financial offences of smuggling, evasion of import and export duties, tax evasion, evasion of monopoly revenues, intentional interference with a state monopoly right or monopoly evasion and has therefore been fined more than EUR 1 750 or, in addition to the fine, has been sentenced to imprisonment.  Punishments dating back more than 5 years do not constitute grounds for exclusion.

Comparable offences abroad are to be treated in the same way as domestic offences.

for the service Technical operations management:

Abteilung 13 Umwelt und Raumordnung
Stempfergasse 7
8010 Graz,01.Bez.:Innere Stadt
Phone: +43 (316) 877-2491
Fax: +43 (316) 877-3490
Email: abteilung13@stmk.gv.at
Web address: http://verwaltung.steiermark.at

Public office hours
Montag bis Freitag von 8:00 bis 12:30 Uhr und nach Terminvereinbarung

The network operator must apply for the permit in writing. It will be granted if the operations manager fulfils the above-mentioned requirements.

The permit will be granted if the operations manager fulfils the requirements. The permit will be revoked if even one of these requirements has ceased to apply or if there are reasonable doubts as to the person's reliability.

If the operations manager resigns or if the approval of their appointment is revoked, network operations may continue until the appointment of a new operations manager, but for no longer than 2 months. The network operator must immediately notify the authority in writing if the operations manager has left the company or if a requirement for the approval of their appointment no longer applies.

§ 26 Stmk. ElWOG

The authorities are obliged to issue the decision whithin six months after the application has been received. If the authority fails to decide within the specified deadline, you have the option of a „Säumnisbeschwerde“ . This Säumnisbeschwerde“ must include the name of the authority whose decision is pending. Additionally, the letter must state the request and provide evidence that the decision deadline of the authority has expired.

Feedback to the European Commission:

I have noted that the data provided by me, as well as any data received by the administration over the course of the preliminary investigation, will be automatically processed as per article 6, para. 1 lit. c and e of the General Data Protection Regulation in accordance with the underlying material laws of the legal process. Furthermore, I am aware that this is for the purpose of executing the legal procedure initiated by me, the granting of regulatory approval and also for the purpose of review. I have read the general information regarding: 

Authentication or signature of the application is not required.

An appeal is possible against rulings issued by an authority and shall be filed by the party within a 4 weeks term with the authority that issued the ruling of first instance (against rulings without investigation procedure within a two weeks term). The term starts with the receipt of the written copy of the ruling, in the case of oral pronouncement simultaneously with it.

Point of Single Contact Styria

Office of the State Government of Styria
8010 Graz, Hofgasse 16

07.05.2024