Power consumers pay higher grid fees than required by law – think tank

A combination of lack of transparency and denial of legal protection means that German power grid fees cannot be sufficiently checked by consumers, consumer organisations, or even politicians, according to a legal analysis published by the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) and the law firm Raue LLP, commissioned by the energy think tank Agora Energiewende.* Regulators’ reasoning for decisions on grid fees is published in incomplete form at most, and consumers may have to pay hundreds of millions of euros too much per year, but have no way of knowing or taking corrective action, writes the think tank in a press release. “Grid fees are a public matter and must be fully disclosed, as is done in other neighbouring EU countries,” said Agora Energiewende head Patrick Graichen.

Find the press release and the analysis in German here.

For background, read the CLEW fact sheet Power grid fees - Unfair and opaque?

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.