“Commission approves German support to cogenerated electricity; opens in-depth investigation into surcharge reductions”

The European Commission has found German plans to support high-efficiency cogeneration (combined heat and power – CHP) to be in line with EU state aid rules. The announcement affirmed parts of the deal that the German federal government had struck with the EU Commission on state aid-related aspects of the country’s new power market law and other energy policy issues this summer. “It’s a good signal that legal certainty for the coming years was established in this important area,” German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a press release. State support for CHP facilities could now be paid retroactively from 1 January 2016 on.
In the same press release, the EU Commission said it was opening an in-depth investigation to see if exemptions for energy-intensive industries on CHP-surcharge payments were in line with state aid rules.

Read the Commission press release in English here and the BMWi press release in German here.

For background read the CLEW article Agreement with EU Commission clears way for German power market reform.