Stadtwerke Gießen is reducing its electricity prices as of 1 July. They will be passing on the abolished EEG levy to their customers.
Giessen. In the face of dramatically rising prices on the energy exchange, politicians have taken action: Back in April, the Bundestag decided to abolish the EEG levy from 1 July 2022. "Of course, we are happy to pass this price reduction on to our customers," explains Jens Schmidt, Commercial Director of Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG). Important to know: The price reduction will take effect automatically and without a special letter.
What does the price reduction mean in figures?
The gross EEG levy currently amounts to 4.43 cents per kilowatt hour. This price component will be completely eliminated in future. For a household with an annual consumption of around 3,000 kilowatt hours in the basic supply, this means a reduction of around 133 euros per year.
Introduced in 2000, the EEG levy was used for more than two decades to finance the expansion of renewable energies for electricity production. This is because all electricity customers used the EEG surcharge to offset the losses incurred by grid operators during this time due to the priority regulation for green electricity. The companies had to purchase electricity from renewable sources at fixed prices. Particularly in the early years, these feed-in tariffs were significantly higher than the end prices for electricity. The aim of the German government was to provide an attractive incentive to invest in renewable energies. The EEG surcharge reached its interim peak in 2017 at 8.19 cents per kilowatt hour gross. At that time, it accounted for more than 20 per cent of the electricity price.