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Wind turbines in Lower Saxony
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Ingo Wagner / DPA
In the midst of the energy crisis, German citizens have a little relief to do.
The so-called renewable energy surcharge will fall to 3.72 cents per kilowatt hour in the coming year.
This was confirmed to the SPIEGEL from the environment of the transmission network operator.
For an average three-person household with an annual consumption of 3500 kilowatt hours of electricity, this corresponds to a relief of 62.30 euros per year.
The Reuters news agency and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had previously reported the number.
The transmission system operators want to announce the number on Friday.
The renewable energy surcharge, or EEG surcharge for short, has been used since 2000 to support the expansion of green electricity systems in Germany.
Until 2017, operators of solar, wind or biogas plants received a fixed state subsidy for each kilowatt hour of green electricity sold.
Since then, the amount of the remuneration has been determined through auctions.
The surcharge is added to consumers' electricity bills.
It is currently 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
The reduction is made possible, among other things, by a newly introduced national tax on CO2 emissions in the transport and building sectors. Part of the income generated in this way is to be transferred to the EEG account in the future. The federal government originally wanted to do this in the current year, but postponed this measure again due to the corona pandemic. According to an internal coalition paper, around 6.9 billion euros in income from the CO2 tax are expected in the coming year alone.
In addition, the high gas, coal and CO2 prices have led to a sharp rise in the price of electricity on the exchange. This means that far less money is needed from the EEG account to compensate for the difference in costs between the guaranteed purchase price for older green electricity systems and the actual electricity price on the exchange. At the same time, very old EEG systems that still receive comparatively high remuneration are gradually being phased out.
The relief is gratifying for consumers - but it should only cushion the current high price in the energy sector to a small extent. For example, electricity on the German stock exchange has become around 140 percent more expensive since the beginning of the year. The first suppliers have already passed the high wholesale prices on to their customers. According to the comparison portal Verivox, electricity costs for German end consumers rose by 9.3 percent in October compared to the previous year.
The main reason for the high electricity prices is an imbalance between supply and demand on the international energy market.
As a result of the economic recovery after the pandemic, production has picked up again worldwide - and with it the demand for energy has increased.
In some cases, the offer could not keep up with this.
As a result, the wholesale prices for gas and coal initially rose.
Since these are still used as fuel for many conventional power plants in Germany, electricity prices have also risen in the meantime.
In addition, the higher costs for EU emission rights are driving up prices.
Such papers will have to be bought by utilities and factories if they emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This puts an additional burden on the operators of coal and gas power plants.