The EEG levy rose to 5.28 Eurocents/kWh for 2013 and for all non-privileged end customers (including all residential households in Germany) this leads to significant higher costs of energy. The EEG levy is the difference between the Feed-in tariff payments made to renewable energies under the EEG and the price that is paid to the electricity generated by these systems to the Transmission System operators when selling it on the wholesale power market.
The difference is paid on a per kWh basis by all non-privileged electricity customers in Germany via their monthly electric bills. The additional electricity supply from renewable energies (in particular PV during noon hours) lead to significant price decreases on the wholesale power market (see RA January 2013 wholesale power report). http://www.renewableanalytics.com/Resources/Upload/Germany_Wholesale_Power_Report_2013/RA-January-2013_Germany-Wholesale-Power-Report.pdf
Taking wholesale power prices in 2008 as the base year the effects of the increased generation from renewable energies can be calculated for each of the following years 2009-2012. 2008 is most suitable as reference as it was before the global financial crisis had effects on energy consumption and also before renewable generation capacities were built on a large scale in Germany. The difference in pricing has to be adjusted taking into account the costs for conventional generation, e.g. volatility of coal, oil and natural gas prices for thermal power generation).
The effect on wholesale prices can be included in the forecast for the change in the EEG levy by the Transmission system operators. Based on this method the EEG levy would only change if there is a change compared to the reference year 2008 that is solely attributable to renewable energy generation capacities.
The remaining difference between the Feed-in tariff payments under the EEG and the price of that electricity on the wholesale power market should be financed from the budget of the economics ministry or other tax revenues because the remainder is not attributable to renewable energies but can be seen as an industrial subsidy. http://www.renewableanalytics.com/Resources/Upload/Restrukturierung_EEG_Umlage/02-20-2013_Restrukturierung-der-Berechnung-der-EEG-Umlage_Renewable-Analytics-LLC.pdf
