Feeding in PV electricity is becoming less and less profitable: What the federal states are still paying

In the early afternoon on sunny days, so much electricity is now being generated in Austria that the prices are negative for hours. Anyone who uses electricity with a flexible contract will therefore receive extra money for their electricity consumption during these periods. This is reducing the interest of electricity companies in solar power – anyone who feeds electricity into the grid is getting less and less for it. The companies recommend using PV power yourself.

In April, “the enormous expansion of photovoltaics over the last year became particularly clear,” the network operator APG recently announced. At 580 GWh (million kWh), PV was able to feed in twelve percent of renewables, significantly more than twice as much as in the same month last year. In view of the surplus, most electricity companies have now switched their remuneration for PV electricity to market prices, which are now only a few cents and are adjusted monthly or quarterly.

OeMAG calculates market price

The central benchmark is the “market price”, which has been calculated retrospectively every month since the beginning of the year by OeMAG, the settlement agency for green electricity. It has fallen from 8.14 cents/kWh in January every month and was only 4.65 cents in April. In principle, every photovoltaic system with a maximum output of 500 kW can feed its electricity into the grid via OeMAG and thus at this price. Electricity companies can pay more – but also less.

A week ago, the Upper Austrian Energy AG because it is terminating the contracts of 20,000 customers and will in future only pay a fraction for the electricity fed into the grid. Whereas customers previously received a guaranteed price of 15.73 cents, in future they will only receive a variable price, which was 3.12 cents in April. Energie AG guarantees at least 2 cents.

• Also read: Energie AG Oberösterreich terminates PV feed-in contracts for 20,000 customers

The Tyrolean state energy supplier Tiwag has already switched the feed-in tariff for new customers to a “dynamic” remuneration model in mid-2023. They currently receive 4.6 cents/kWh, in the first quarter it was 7.7 cents. Customers with a contract concluded before July 2023 will receive the full market price, which was most recently 7.6 cents and in the first quarter of 2024 9.6 cents/kWh. Terminations of old contracts are not currently planned, says Tiwag, and overall the feed-in tariff will settle back to the level before the energy crisis – i.e. before 2021.

Also in the Energy Styria Since the beginning of 2023, feeders have only received a quarterly fluctuating tariff. It is currently 4.63 cents/kWh net for the second quarter of 2024. This affects almost half of the 25,500 customers with a feed-in contract. 13,000 customers whose contract was concluded before January 1, 2023 have annual contracts; their current price is 11.79 cents/kWh net. “Customers can also sell or give away their surplus solar power to friends, relatives and acquaintances across Austria at prices of their choosing using our new ‘Smart Community’ tariff,” explained Energie Steiermark spokesman Urs Harnik-Lauris.

• More on the subject: The PV system as a jack of all trades, but for whom?

At the Lower Austrian utility EVN The offer for new customers is adjusted monthly; in May the tariff is 4.03 cents per kWh. Many existing customers still receive the purchase price for the electricity fed into the grid up to the amount they take from the grid, but with the new contracts offered by EVN they will be switched to the monthly fluctuating and significantly lower market price. According to EVN, around a quarter of the photovoltaic systems installed in Austria are located in Lower Austria. “The level of expansion is now so great that photovoltaics, like any other energy source to be procured, must be evaluated very closely to the market,” it was emphasized. “Instead of large PV systems on the roof of the house or garage, the trend is now moving towards smaller systems that cover your own consumption as best as possible. In combination with a powerful storage system, you can achieve very good results in covering your own needs and thus save a lot of money,” EVN said in response to an APA query.

At the Salzburg AG “New customers” who have been with the company since February 1, 2022 will receive a remuneration of around 3.1 cents per kWh, while older customers (contract start date until January 31, 2022) will receive around 7.4 cents per kWh. On Friday, the state energy supplier ruled out contract terminations at the request of the APA. On the other hand, there will be a new tariff model from July 15, 2024 that is particularly attractive for those who feed in small quantities. The new tariff consists of a basic remuneration of four cents per kWh and a special bonus that changes annually. This will be six cents per kWh until the end of January 2025, meaning customers will receive ten cents per kWh until then. However, the special bonus only applies to feeders who are also customers of Salzburg AG and only for systems up to 50 kWpeak. At the same time, the basic remuneration and special bonus are staggered depending on consumption: from 1,000 kWh, the remuneration decreases gradually and from 3,501 kWh it is two cents (plus a four cent bonus). The current 15,000 customers who feed surplus PV electricity into the Salzburg AG network can, but do not have to, switch. “A PV system should primarily be intended to cover self-consumption. Then it is also most profitable,” said Salzburg AG CEO Michael Baminger. “Larger-sized systems that feed in a lot of electricity will increasingly find themselves in a new energy industry reality. PV electricity is less valuable because it comes at a less convenient time.”

• You might also be interested in: PV power: What you should know about battery storage

Also the Burgenland Energy insists that photovoltaic operators should primarily use their own electricity. The feed-in tariff is currently around 7.76 cents per kilowatt hour. From the company’s point of view, however, this is not relevant for a properly planned PV system that is geared towards self-consumption, it said in response to an APA query. The aim is to use or store the electricity produced yourself and not “unnecessarily feed it into the grid,” said the Burgenland state energy supplier. This would save customers energy, grid and tax costs. It is therefore in the interest of households not to have high feed-in prices, but low market prices so that the electricity bill is as low as possible.

Good remuneration in Vorarlberg, Vienna and Carinthia

More than the market price is currently available at Vorarlberg energy supplier illwerke vkw. Depending on the tariff chosen, 13 or 15 cents per kilowatt hour are currently paid there. However, these prices are only guaranteed until the end of the year, when they will be re-determined. The 13 (standard tariff) or 15 cents (Eco+ tariff) for the first 3,500 kilowatt hours fed in consist of a basic fee of 7 or 9 cents respectively and a special bonus of 6 cents granted by the energy company this year. From the 3,501st kilowatt hour, 7 cents are paid as a basic fee in both tariffs, and 5 cents for any amount of electricity beyond 10,000 kilowatt hours. The special bonus is paid regardless of the amount of electricity. According to illwerke vkw, by the end of 2023, more than 10,700 photovoltaic system operators in Vorarlberg had generated and fed in electricity.

You can still get a relatively high price for your PV power in Vienna: Vienna Energy currently pays both existing and new customers 12.04 cents/kWh. The price is always adjusted on April 1 and October 1 according to the development of the Austrian electricity price index; before the last adjustment it was 16.05 cents/kWh, a Wien Energie spokesperson explained in response to an APA inquiry. Contract terminations, as recently happened at Energie AG in Upper Austriaare not planned. The feed-in tariff applies to systems with an output of up to 25kWpeak.

Kelag also offers comparatively high remuneration for small feeders. Carinthian energy supplier has two tariff models for electricity feed-in. With the classic tiered tariff, you get 24 cents for the first 500 kWh fed in, 18 cents for 501 to 1,000 kWh, 12 cents for between 1,001 and 5,000 kWh and 6 cents for 5,001 kWh and more. The variable feed-in tariff is based on the electricity exchange and depends on the respective load profile. In Carinthia, no changes or terminations are currently planned for the feed-in tariffs, Kelag spokesman Josef Stocker told APA.