Federal Constitutional Court supports the traffic light coalition’s electricity price brake

In the dispute over the skimming of excess revenues as part of the electricity price cap, 22 affected green electricity producers failed at the Federal Constitutional Court. Their constitutional complaints were unsuccessful, as the court in Karlsruhe decided. In the exceptional situation, the redistribution of the surplus revenues achieved created an appropriate balance between the benefiting electricity producers and the burdened electricity consumers.

The aim of the electricity price brake, which has now expired, was to relieve consumers of high electricity prices in view of the energy crisis. Part of the electricity consumption was offered at a fixed, cheaper price. To help finance the price cap, some of the surplus revenue generated at the time was skimmed off by electricity producers.

Excess revenue or windfall profits refer to profits that were significantly higher than the company’s expected profits at the time. The reason was the extremely high gas prices as a result of the Russian war of aggression. Because gas-fired power plants, as the most expensive power plants on the electricity market, often set the price for all other power plants, other types of generation also benefited from the high prices, while their costs remained roughly the same. Some of the excess revenue was skimmed off from December 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

22 operators of wind power, photovoltaic and biomass systems defended themselves against this at the highest German court. They considered the levy to be unconstitutional. Overcoming the energy crisis is the state’s responsibility and should therefore be financed from tax revenues.