An important week begins for Europe’s energy markets – and electricity consumers. This Friday, at their meeting in Brussels, the EU energy ministers are to approve the law with which the European Union wants to help citizens quickly against the high prices. In addition, the Commission will probably already publish further proposals on the future of the energy markets on Wednesday. The Czech government has now presented a new compromise text for the law. The Czechs are running the business in the Council of Ministers. Of the Süddeutsche Zeitung the 44-page document is available. Accordingly, the governments want to give themselves more flexibility in the implementation.
The commission laid the explosive draft regulation two weeks ago. In order for it to come into force, a majority of the EU energy ministers must agree. The legal act obliges governments to skim off the high profits from cheap power plants and use the proceeds to support households and companies that are suffering greatly from energy prices. The federal government is planning something like this anyway; the EU legal act provides the framework for this. The law stipulates an upper price limit of 180 euros per megawatt hour for green coal, lignite and nuclear power suppliers. The exchange price for electricity is significantly higher – the difference should go to the states. The reason for the high prices are the exorbitant costs of gas-fired power plants. They de facto determine the exchange price for electricity.
The new compromise text even allows governments to introduce further measures to fleece cheap power plants even more. At the same time, however, the member states are allowed to set more generous limits if some plants do not manage with 180 euros per megawatt hour. There is also a change compared to the Commission draft with regard to the solidarity tax: the regulation establishes a one-time special tax for oil, gas and coal companies. The governments should compare their annual profit in 2022 with the average of the four previous years, as the law now says. The Commission wanted to leave it at three previous years. Profit increases of more than 20 percent should be subject to a special tax of at least 33 percent.
The regulation also requires governments to identify the 10 percent of the hours when electricity is the highest and then reduce consumption by at least 5 percent during those peak hours. However, the compromise text now gives Member States the option of defining the peak period more flexibly. It does not necessarily have to be the ten percent with the greatest need. Instead, governments can choose other periods. The main thing is that sufficient electricity is saved in the end. The two island states of Malta and Cyprus are given a particularly large amount of freedom: according to the compromise, they are not obliged to save electricity or skim off profits. It is purely voluntary.
Power grids are to become more digital
The Commission will probably present further proposals on the energy market as early as Wednesday. One of the topics will be whether and how price fluctuations can be dampened. The volatility means that energy traders and suppliers have to deposit a high level of security for their orders – this puts some suppliers in financial difficulties.
The authority will also present an action plan for the digitization of energy networks. Electricity providers and consumers in the EU should be able to permanently exchange data in the future in order to make the supply more efficient and flexible. In the action plan, the 23-page draft of which SZ is available, the Commission promises to set up a working group by March. Investments in digitization should be promoted and hurdles removed. In addition, the authority wants to support network operators in creating a digital image of the European network.