13.11.2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The EEG account once again decreased by billions over the course of October. Funding expenditure remained high, while income fell to a relatively low level.
The balance in the EEG account shrank by a further 1.5 billion euros in October. The monthly statement, which the transmission system operators (TSOs) published without comment on November 10, shows that there was only a credit balance of 3.2 billion euros in the EEG account at the beginning of November. At the beginning of the year, this figure had been 15 billion euros (we reported on several occasions).
The EEG account essentially offsets the income from the mandatory marketing of subsidized green electricity against the subsidy expenditure. The EEG levy as a financing instrument has been abolished; if necessary, the federal government would use budget funds to prevent the credit balance, most of which stems from federal subsidies from the previous year, from turning into a liability.
In accounting terms, the new bloodletting in October can be explained by the fact that the costs of subsidies, especially for old plants with high subsidy rates, only fell slightly, while income plummeted to a historically low level. The TSOs received only 159 million euros in trust from the mandatory marketing of subsidized green electricity. This is less than in any other month since the beginning of 2022, with the exception of the traditionally weak month of January.
In October 2022, €322 million had still been received from marketing on the Epex Spot exchange, compared to €229 million in September 2023.
In October 2023, the drop in income was offset by an only slightly lower payment volume to subsidized system operators - mainly private operators of small rooftop PV systems: it fell from €1.8 billion to €1.7 billion between September and October. The fact that the monthly loss in October was nevertheless lower than in September, when it amounted to almost €1.8 billion, was only due to the negative one-off effect every September when the TSOs settle the EEG with the distribution system operators.
Author: Georg Eble
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