“RWE, E.ON et al. Alarmed; Attack on returns of grid operators“

Grid operators such as utilities are protesting plans by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) to lower grid fees by decreasing the return on equity operators invest in Germany’s grid infrastructure, write Jürgen Flauger and Klaus Stratmann in the Handelsblatt. “With the planned decrease of the return on equity that is invested in power grids, we retrace the development of the trend in capital market interest rates,” Jochen Homann, president of BNetzA, told the newspaper. The losses for the already-struggling sector would be in the billions of euros, as large parts of many utilities’ business lies in grids, not only power generation, write Flauger and Stratmann. The reform was the right move, as consumers – who needed to pay the fees in the end – would not accept the “discrepancy compared to the developments on the capital markets” much longer, writes Flauger in a separate opinion piece.