Germany to cut EEG fee in support of renewable energy

FRANKFURT Reuters : Germany will stop a production charge due to household customers to support renewable energy by 42.7% to help households cope with soaring energy prices, network operators said on Friday

Germany and other governments in Europe are seeking to provide relief for consumers while gasoline prices skyrocket.

The decision to demonetize German levy and instead pay 3.723 euro cents per kilowatt hour kWh confirms a Reuters report on Thursday. The government will help fund the cut with 3.25 billion euros $3.77 billion in revenue collected from carbon taxes.

The fee, which was reduced by 3.9% last year to help improve the economy out of the coronavirus slump, is collected under the Renewable Energy Act and paid to producers of wind and solar electricity installations.

The EEG fee make up one-fifth of an individual's energy bill.

Transmission system operators calculate the fee by continuously monitoring income from the EEG levy payments and the size of the account in which they are deposited, by factoring wholesale prices and predicted feed-in of renewable energy onto the grids.

The TSOs are Amprion, 50 Hertz, TransnetBW and Tennet.

Verivox Price Comparison Service said a typical household of consuming 4,000 kWh per year would save 132 euros on its annual bill.

However, this is only arithmetic, because the savings may not be passed to all suppliers.

Because of rising wholesale market prices and higher network tariffs, there will not be substantial relief for households, it said.

Kerstin Andreae, of the German utility trade association BDEW, said the incoming German government should abolish the EEG fee immediately. This would permanently relieve power customers and not least medium-sized industries, said she in a statement.