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secondWith the EEG Green Electricity Act amendment, any incentive to save energy threatens to fall by the wayside. The climate impact of the “Renewable Energy Law 2021” is even partially offset by an absurd requirement: those who save electricity will be punished.
That at least applies to industrial companies that benefit from the so-called special compensation regulation in law. Consequently, companies with particularly high electricity costs only have to pay a fraction of the EEG surcharge. This should protect them from disadvantages in international competition. But no matter how sensible the rule is, it doesn’t make sense.
Because if the intensity of the electricity cost of a company falls below a certain strict threshold, the companies fall outside the relief regulation of the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
Lack of error distorts the meaning of CEE
The total EEG surcharge is then much more significant than the possible savings in the cost of electricity. Therefore, many companies avoid measures that could significantly reduce electricity consumption.
“The government draft,” criticized Christian Noll, director of the German Corporate Initiative for Energy Efficiency eV (DENEFF), “continues to ignore this long-known grievance.” the opposite, and it has a particularly negative effect on low-income people.
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“As electricity consumption increases, so does the energy generation conversion effort and the expansion of the network”, emphasizes the head of DENEFF: “Most of the costs of this are assumed by all companies and non-beneficiary consumers “.
The initiative estimates the annual savings potential of the order of several large power plants. This would be the disincentive for unnecessarily high electricity consumption Finally removed, this could trigger massive investments by companies in more efficient lighting, compressed air systems, drives, motors, pumps, ventilation, cooling system controls, and power management systems.
Energy efficiency is not a niche topic. Eco-associations are already accusing the federal government of artificially calculating electricity demand in 2030 to save the construction and financing of additional wind and solar systems.
The electrification of traffic energy and heating by heat pumps, so the criticism, will significantly increase electricity consumption in this decade. However, the federal government expects electricity consumption to remain relatively stable until 2030.
In making this assessment, you are referring to studies like Prognos. Therefore, the increased demand for electric cars and heat pumps can be offset by an increase in efficiency.
Why is the government so neglectful of energy saving?
If achieving the share of green electricity that has been hotly debated politically depends heavily on efficiency gains, it is necessary to explain why politicians neglect energy saving so much.
In any case, the trend is wrong: according to current calculations by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen (AGEB), Germany “could not meet the expectations of a continued increase in energy efficiency in 2019.”
According to AGEB calculations, energy efficiency has deteriorated again, especially in industry and in the transport sector. Private households and the commercial utility sector are seeing gains in energy efficiency, but they are also well below the 2.1 percent annual target required by the federal government for total final energy consumption.
Therefore, the DENEFF efficiency initiative is campaigning to finally correct the problem with the current EEG amendment.
Source: WORLD infographic
Electrical efficiency should no longer lead to a loss of preferential treatment. As a remedy, DENEFF suggests crediting companies with electricity savings through efficiency measures.
This means that they can remain in the special compensation regime even if the ratio of gross value added to electricity consumption falls below the legal threshold. This solution would require a clarification of the state aid law with the Commission, says DENEFF head Noll: “There has been enough time for this in recent years.”
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) also admits that the EEG keeps sending the wrong signals when it comes to efficiency. According to the BDI, the strict “cut-off limit”, above which all EEG privileges are lost when saving electricity, should be replaced by a “sliding input” in the special compensation scheme.
The issue of efficiency was out of focus again
“This would ensure a smooth start, eliminate uncertainty between companies and also have a good chance of complying with EU subsidies,” explains Carsten Rolle, Director of Energy and Climate Policy at BDI: “The Bundestag should take this into account. it counts in your deliberations on the EEG amendment. It is important that any solution is guaranteed by state aid law. “
With the upcoming reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Law, as in the past, the issue of efficiency was often triggered. For now, the parties are discussing more fundamental issues, electricity consumption forecasts and connection regulations for wind and solar parks, which will lose their EEG financing in large numbers from 2020.
In view of the fundamental nature of the open questions, it is not entirely clear whether the “EEG 2021” can go into effect this year as planned. The second and third reading in the Bundestag on December 16 would be possible. But the fundamental question of whether and to what extent renewables want to receive more subsidies remains unanswered.
Leading economists have long been calling for an end to the EEG surcharge, with which consumers pay for the additional costs of green electricity production. In the energy sector as well, the systematic shortcomings of the allocation system are viewed by many as unsustainable.
Even the minimal reduction in the EEG surcharge promised by the federal government will cost the fiscal budget around eleven billion euros over the next two years. Therefore, the Union would like to include an expiration date for the EEG in the current amendment: in parallel with the phase out of coal, subsidies for green electricity production should also be melted down.
