Lots of wind power, expensive electricity
Kiel calls for rapid reform of network charges
08/16/2023 02:22 am
How fair is it when electricity is particularly expensive in federal states with a lot of wind power? “Where the renewable electricity is produced, it needs relief and not a burden,” says SPD Vice Miersch. And Schleswig-Holstein is putting pressure on.
In the debate about network charges, the state government of Schleswig-Holstein has called for more speed for a new regulation. “One of the central questions of justice in the energy transition depends on the grid fees. For years, their unequal distribution has caused considerable distortions in electricity prices. It is important that things now not only get moving, but really get going,” said the State Secretary for the Energy Transition and Climate Protection in the The state’s Ministry of the Environment, Joschka Knuth from the Greens, the “Rheinische Post”.
For the social acceptance of the energy transition, it is crucial that the costs are distributed fairly as quickly as possible. “This means that after the change in the Energy Industry Act, the distribution must also take effect as early as 2024,” said Knuth. “In addition, we finally need an objective and fact-based debate on the subject of electricity price zones. A perspective division would not be a deindustrialization program for the South,” says Knuth. Rather, it would be a way of stimulating the expansion of green electricity urgently needed by industry, permanently lowering electricity prices and thus making Germany future-proof as a business location.
SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch also spoke out in favor of a reform of grid fees and financial relief for electricity consumers in wind power countries. “The current regulation of the network fees cannot last,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND). “Wherever the renewable electricity is produced, it needs relief and not a burden.”
The Federal Network Agency’s proposals “for a fair network fee regulation” are therefore correct, Miersch continued. The aim must be to distribute the burden fairly between the regions and to reward electricity purchases that relieve our grids. “The prerequisite for this is that we finally make progress with the intelligent electricity meters. Here the roll-out must be even faster,” said the social democrat.
Scholz joins the Federal Network Agency
On Monday evening, Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the SPD also agreed with the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, that citizens in regions with large wind power generation are currently unjustifiably higher electricity costs. The reason for this is that costs for power lines and investments are passed on to consumers, which is much more the case in northern and eastern Germany than in Bavaria, for example. Scholz had announced that network charges would soon be revised.
The FDP spokesman for energy policy, Michael Kruse, also supports the plans. He also suggested orienting the cost distribution “on the benefit of the extension”: “Anyone who transmits a lot of renewable electricity from the north to the south must be rewarded for it,” Kruse told the RND. “In the future, it can no longer be the case that individual federal states block the expansion of renewables and make other federal states pay for it.”