Germany’s EEG levy surplus reaches $4 billion in 2017

€3,919,845,325.40 – this is the surplus on Germany's EEG account at the end of 2017. In December alone, the surplus increased, by almost €490 million, as reported by the update of the German transmission system operators.

In the course of the year, the surplus on the EEG account, with which the TSOs pay compensation for the operators of photovoltaic, wind and biomass plants in Germany, increased by more than €1.03 billion.

Last year’s revenue of the account totaled €27.36 billion, while expenditure was €26.33 billion, as the statistics further show. The compensation payments for the EEG plants amounted to almost €25.7 billion. In 2016, it was still €24.9 billion euros, which shows that newly installed capacity from photovoltaic plants and wind turbines is quite significant.

Despite the massive surplus on the EEG account, the transmission system operators have only slightly reduced the EEG-surcharge for non-exempted final consumers this year. It was reduced in fact, from €0.0688/kWh in 2017, to €0.06792/kWh this year.

In December, there were several phases over Christmas with negative electricity prices. Thus, there were negative electricity prices from 9 pm on December 23, to 8 pm on December 24, as well as on December 25 from 12 to 8 am, on December 26, between 2 and 9 am, and from 10 am to 4 pm.

Under the EEG, operators of installations in compulsory direct marketing will not receive compensation if prices on the spot market of the power exchange are negative for at least six consecutive hours.