Many electricity customers in rural areas of Germany can look forward to lower bills next year. However, it could also be more expensive.
Because of a new cost distribution for the expansion of the electricity grid, an estimated ten million households in many rural regions of Germany can expect lower energy prices next year. The reduction in network fees, which make up around a quarter of the electricity price, is aimed at the north and east of Germany as well as Bavaria – and there the country and not the big cities. Elsewhere, however, it gets a little more expensive.
Network fees are paid by gas and electricity suppliers to the network operators as a kind of fee and passed on to consumers. The costs of expanding the electricity network are also passed on to the network fees.
When asked, the energy company Eon announced that some of its distribution network subsidiaries were significantly reducing network fees. These companies cover around 700,000 kilometers of power lines and thus around a third of the entire German distribution network. The following regions are likely to benefit from cost reductions.
The Hessian company Syna, on the other hand, is increasing its fees by five percent and Westnetz from North Rhine-Westphalia by one percent. Both companies belong to Eon: energy customers who live in their network areas must therefore be prepared for a slight price increase. In total there are around 800 electricity network operators in Germany.
To expand the networks, sparsely populated regions with many wind turbines and photovoltaic systems have previously had to pay more than regions with relatively few wind turbines and few solar systems, such as large cities – even though these were the ones that benefited from the influx of electricity. That should now change. The Federal Network Agency has changed a corresponding regulation. “We want fair network fees for people and companies who live or operate in regions with a strong expansion of renewables,” says network agency boss Klaus Müller, explaining the new rules, which are now being applied for the first time.
According to the first reports from network operators, the authority assumes that the relief volume will be more than two billion euros. “On the other hand, the relief leads to manageable additional costs for all electricity consumers in Germany,” says the authority president and calls on electricity suppliers to quickly pass these advantages on to end customers. “Customers should make sure that the discounts reach them or that they change their supplier.”
Energy companies do not necessarily have to pass on the reduction in network fees to the end customer as a lower price, but due to competition on the market, the relief will reach electricity customers sooner or later. If the energy companies did not lower the price accordingly, they would probably lose customers.
The energy provider Wemag, which acts as both a network operator and a supplier, has already announced that it will pass on the reduction in fees from its network operator division in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to customers. The company publishes a sample calculation: An average household with a consumption of 3,500 kilowatt hours would pay 9.47 cents per kilowatt hour in the coming year instead of the previous 15.5 cents – that would be an annual reduction of around 40 percent or 211 euros. Other companies want to follow.
However, analysts are somewhat more critical about the future. The reason is the development on the oil market. If the price of crude oil rises sharply, the price of gas will also rise. And a large part of the electricity in Germany is still generated using gas-fired power plants. The result: electricity prices could also rise.
