“Electricity prices remain unpredictable”

Electricity consumers will likely see rising costs for the support of renewable energies with a possible increase of the renewables surcharge to 7.5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh) by 2025, compared to the current 6.35 cents/KWh, according to a new study by Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln) commissioned by trade associations and the energy intensive industries. “In total, the costs for the support [of renewables] may likely rise to 24.8-32.9 billion euros per year until 2025,” write the authors. The study examines different scenarios of how changing power prices and other circumstances influence the amount of renewables support needed over the coming years. IW Köln – which is the think tank of Germany’s large business associations – makes clear that a reliable prediction is hardly possible because of the myriad of parameters, not least wholesale power prices.
Without the industry exemptions, “the affected companies in Germany would have long since stopped being competitive. The IW study shows that we will need the exemptions in the future more than ever,” said Michael Basten, spokesperson of the platform of energy intensive industries in Germany in separate press release.

Find the IW press release in German here and the study in German here.

Find the press release by the energy intensive industries in German here.

For background, read the CLEW article Renewable energy levy set to rise in 2017 – think tank and the factsheet Industrial power prices and the Energiewende.