Germany to retain uniform power price zone

The German power market will not be split into two separate price zones, Germany’s council of federal state governments, the Bundesrat, has said in a press release. The council greenlighted a legal ordinance by the acting federal government that prevents a split between a northern German zone with lower power prices and a southern zone with higher power prices, the press release says. The amendment aims to ensure grid operators cannot split the country into several bidding zones or to introduce bottleneck management in grid-overload situations. Electricity is cheaper in northern Germany due to high volumes of wind power that cannot be transported to industrial centres in the south because of lack of transmission lines.

Find the Bundesrat’s resolution in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet Power grid fees – unfair and opaque? for more information.