Where a lot of renewable energy is produced, electricity often costs more than in other regions. The minister wants to change that – and has support for it.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) wants to talk to the federal states about reforming network charges for electricity. He is reasonably hopeful that “it can be tackled,” Habeck said today in the State Chancellery in Potsdam.
There he met the Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) for political talks. It is “economically nonsensical and socially incorrect” that electricity prices are higher in regions that produce a lot of renewable energy. “That’s why we will – hopefully in good cooperation – have to talk to all federal states about a reform of the network charges.”
Prime Minister Woidke no longer wants to accept higher electricity costs in Brandenburg than in Bavaria, for example. “It is incomprehensible that the federal states with the highest level of development of renewable energies are penalized with the highest electricity prices,” said Woidke today. “It’s a classic false incentive.”
Brandenburg and other northern German states have long been demanding that the network expansion costs required by the energy transition be distributed more fairly. However, six federal states, including Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, are opposed to higher electricity prices due to a lower expansion of wind power.
“The question is how do we create justice there,” said Habeck in Potsdam. “We will now try to clarify these questions together.”
Source: Stern
