Industry grid fee rebates top one billion euros

According to grid operators, German power consumers will have to shoulder grid fee rebates for energy-intensive industry in excess of 1 billion euros next year, sparking renewed calls for reform of the system to pay for keeping the grid stable as renewable power production rises. The rebates are set to rise more than 20 percent to 1.115 billion euros in 2017. That will mean the surcharge added to consumer power bills to finance the rebates will rise from 0.378 to 0.388 cents per kilowatt-hour (ct/kWh). The operators published their forecast last week in a technical table, which went unnoticed by the press until Green MP Bärbel Höhn drew attention to it, sparking numerous press reports this week.

Find the grid operators' technical table in German here.

Read the CLEW article Industry grid fee rebates top 1 billion euros, fuel reform debate.