“The Energiewende must not become a planned economy”

Germany’s across-the-board taxes, levies and surcharges on power consumption limit flexibility and innovation in the energy sector, Fabian Reetz writes on Zeit Online. More than 80 percent of the German power price is made up of such fees imposed by the state in a per-kilowatt-hour lump sum, Reetz says. It therefore cannot be in the state’s interest to enforce its professed energy policy principle “efficiency first,” because this would “lead to the collapse of our electricity system’s funding,” he argues. At the same time, the power price for households does not fall when greater consumption is needed to relieve the grid, Reetz says. Available technology could allow for a far more flexible and efficient energy use, “but the potential for the Energiewende can only be exploited if the state backs off a bit.”

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet What German households pay for power for background.