The German industry must adjust to possible additional payments of EEG levies in the billions. This is according to SPIEGEL information from a test commissioned by the four transmission system operators (Amprion, Tennet, 50Hertz and TransnetBW).
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The EEG surcharge owes its name to the Renewable Energy Act. There, among other things, a remuneration for electricity from solar or wind power is set. As a result of this higher prices, electricity consumers pay via the surcharge - but there are also exceptions.
According to SPIEGEL information, an external law firm is currently investigating whether an own-stream model applied by hundreds of German companies is permissible, or whether it only served to save billions of euros in the EEG surcharge over the years. In addition to electricity suppliers, these include well-known names in German industry such as Daimler or Bayer AG. The companies surveyed by the SPIEGEL assured that they had also complied with all legal requirements in the past.
The network operators and the Federal Network Agency suspect, according to SPIEGEL, that some of the models for years could violate applicable law. Around 300 cases are therefore being reviewed. The companies apparently took advantage of an exception in the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the so-called own power privilege. Actually, it was intended to exempt power plant operators from the levy, which use their self-generated electricity.
Specifically, it is now about a so-called disc lease model, in which the capacity of large power plants in several packages (slices) is divided and re-leased. The tenants are contractually treated as a kind of equal power plant operators. Unlike electricity supply, they have to pay no or only a reduced EEG apportionment for the supposedly self-produced electricity. The network operators and the Federal Network Agency suspect that this design was only chosen to circumvent the EEG surcharge.
If the assumption is true, the network operators want to demand the non-paid contribution amounts. Because of the long period, the sum could go into the billions. The money would be attributed to the success of the EEG account and could then relieve the electricity bill of private customers. Because of the pay-as-you-go system, they had to compensate in the past for what the industrial companies have saved with potentially questionable tricks.
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