What exactly is the EEG surcharge, why is it being abolished and how noticeable is the financial relief in electricity costs announced by the federal government through its elimination?
What is the EEG surcharge and why is it being abolished?
The electricity price is made up as follows: costs for procurement and sale of electricity, costs for using the electricity grids and state-initiated components. In addition to various tax levies, the latter also includes the EEG surcharge.
This has existed since the year 2000, the abbreviation EEG stands for Renewable Energy Sources Act. This is a surcharge on electricity costs that is used to finance the promotion of the expansion of renewable energies. An amount is calculated annually based on the financial resources needed to expand solar, wind, hydroelectric and biomass power plants, which is added to the electricity price per kilowatt hour (kWh).
The operators of the electricity transmission grids (NB) calculate the EEG surcharge from the electricity suppliers. Electricity suppliers pass these costs on to electricity customers – that is, everyone who receives an electricity bill. There are of course exceptions: some companies do not have to pay an EEG surcharge.
In 2021, the EEG surcharge was 6.5 cents/kWh, at the beginning of 2022 it was reduced to 3.72 cents/kWh to relieve electricity customers.
The surcharge will be abolished on July 1, 2022 in order to reduce the current energy price and to relieve electricity customers in Germany. From this date, the federal government will pay the levy on the Energy and Climate Fund (EKF). The federal government states that the burden on the EKF from the EEG surcharge will amount to around 6.6 billion euros in the future.
Example calculation: How much will electricity customers save in 2022 as a result of the reduction and the elimination?
According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), electricity costs in Germany in the first half of 2021 for private households averaged 32.62 cents/kWh. According to Statista, four-person households in Germany consumed between 2,600 and 5,000 kWh of electricity in 2021, depending on the type of apartment (single-family house/multiple-family house). The following example calculation is carried out with the mean value of 3,800 kWh. The (semi-)annual electricity bill is determined using the formula electricity price in euros x kWh consumed.
The electricity bill for a four-person household that consumed 3,800 kWh of electricity in 2021 is therefore a total of 1,239.56 euros – at that time the EEG surcharge was 6.5 cents/kWh.
0.3262 x 3800 = 1239.56
In the first half of 2022, the EEG surcharge will be 3.72 cents/kWh. If one adopts the average electricity costs/kWh given by Destatis for 2021, the average electricity price for 2022 is 32.62 cents/kWh – 3.72 cents/kWh and thus amounts to 28.9 cents/kWh. If the four-person household consumes exactly half of its 3,800 kWh in this half-year, the electricity costs for the four-person household for the first half of 2022 will be exactly 549.10 euros:
0.289 x 1,900 = 549.1
If you also accept the electricity costs specified by Destatis for the second half of 2022 and subtract the entire EEG surcharge for 2021, the average electricity price is 26.12 cents/kWh. At the end of the second half of the year, the four-person household received a bill for EUR 496.28 for their remaining electricity consumption:
32.62 cents/kWh – 6.5 cents/kWh = 26.12 cents/kWh
0.2612 x 1,900 = 496.28
In 2022, the four-person household will pay a total of 1,045.38 euros in electricity costs and have already saved 194.18 euros:
549.1 + 496.28 = 1,045.38
1,239.56 – 1,045.38 = 194.18
Sample calculation: How much will electricity customers save in 2023 as a result of the discontinuation?
If you take over the average electricity costs for 2021 specified by Destatis minus the EEG surcharge for the entire year 2023, the electricity costs for a four-person household amount to 992.56 euros.
0.2612 x 3800 = 992.56
This means that the four-person household will save exactly 247 euros in 2023 compared to 2021.
How noticeable is this relief really?
As the editorial network Germany (RND) reports, environmental organizations argue against the abolition of the EEG surcharge. A reduction in electricity costs would encourage consumers to consume more energy – which, despite the Renewable Energy Sources Act, is still largely produced in a conventional manner and is therefore environmentally harmful (e.g. with lignite). However, the energy umbrella association BDEW doubts that prices will actually fall as sharply as announced by the federal government. In view of the current energy supply market, “the high costs that energy suppliers have to pay for the purchase of electricity could partially or completely offset the reducing effect of the EEG surcharge,” a BDEW spokeswoman told RND. The spokeswoman did not give exact figures.
Olga Rogler / Editor finanzen.net
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