Enlarge image
Wind farm in Brandenburg: The skyrocketing exchange electricity prices have given producers of green electricity incredible profits.
States like Germany are now skimming off the profits.
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The EU Commission is considering permanently skimming off the surplus profits of nuclear, lignite and green electricity producers.
This emerges from a preliminary draft by the Brussels authorities for the reform of the EU electricity market, which SPIEGEL has seen.
Under the heading "Better empowerment and protection for consumers", the EU Commission reports on the revenue cap for electricity producers with low generation costs that has been in place since October and who are benefiting from the extremely high market prices.
"One possible option would be to apply such a revenue cap more permanently and in a more harmonized manner, or to activate it in a targeted manner in crisis situations," the paper says.
It therefore leaves open whether Brussels wants to generally perpetuate the emergency measures that are currently taking effect or whether it is only planning fixed rules for future exceptional situations.
The current revenue cap was decided at the end of September by the energy ministers of the 27 EU member states as a temporary measure.
It stipulates that producers of electricity with lower variable costs, such as operators of wind and solar parks, lignite or nuclear power plants, may receive a maximum of 180 euros per megawatt hour.
In the past few months, electricity prices on the exchange have been more than five times as high, mainly due to escalating fuel costs for gas-fired power plants.
Up to now, Europe's electricity markets have functioned according to the so-called
merit order
model.
The price of the most expensive producers whose electricity is still needed defines the market price for all the electricity traded there.
The result was incredible profits for operators of wind farms and solar parks or brown coal piles, for example, who can generate electricity at a fraction of the cost.
Countries like Germany are now siphoning off these excess profits – among other things, in order to use them to finance the new electricity and gas price brakes for end consumers.
This also harbors dangers: for example, companies may lack the capital to invest in the expansion of renewable energies.
It is not yet clear whether the revenue cap will become a permanent rule.
The preliminary draft of the EU Commission, a so-called non-paper, is therefore not legally binding.
It serves as the basis for a final advisory round with key interest groups in the electricity market.
By March 2023, this should result in the draft for the new electricity market design - which will then be discussed in the Council of Heads of State and Government.
The market design is finally decided in coordination with the European Parliament.
ssu/che
